Charge
by Klaus' Vampire Barbie
Summary: Klaus works as a Sergeant in the Homicide Department in the police force. Everything is going fine in his life, but now a new recruit has joined the team - Lieutenant (Caroline) Forbes. As Klaus seeks her attention, they realise they will need to get past the threat of the top most wanted criminals to get what they want. Focusses on Klaroline. Has some Koroline, Mabekah & Kalijah.
1. In Charge

**Hi guys! I'm back with a new fanfic! So I was researching a lot on the Police Academies today because I kind of want to get into the defense force, and I thought why not write a Klaroline fanfic where they're part of that amazing career?! I'm going to make this an ongoing story, so look out for the next chapter! Enjoy! :)**

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It had been a long day in the Homicide Department, with no particularly promising results on their current 'most wanted' list. The girls from the Department had taken off across the street for coffee, while the boys stayed in the office, playing a game of poker since the day so far hadn't been eventful.

Klaus smirked down at his hand of cards and tossed ten dollars into the centre of the table. "You might as well fold, mate. I've got this round."

Matt scoffed. "Yeah right. I'm not backing out just for you, Mikaelson." He said and put in enough cash to match Klaus'.

They revealed their cards and Klaus laughed triumphantly. "Ha! My straight beats your three of a kind." He said and dragged the money from the centre of the table towards him. "Alright. Who's dealing next?"

Tyler started dealing the next round of cards when Alaric walked in. "Where the hell are the girls?" he asked then stopped short when he saw the cards. "And what the hell are you all doing? I don't pay you to gamble in our department. I pay you to enforce the law."

The boys turned to face Alaric and set down their cards, Tyler taking his feet off the table. "Nothing has happened today, Chief. We've still got our monitors running, we just thought we might as well enjoy each other's company while we waited for something interesting to happen."

Klaus snorted at Tyler's words and jerked this thumb towards him. "For once, I actually agree with the guy."

"Shocker." Tyler said darkly and turned his attention back to Alaric. "But please, continue."

Alaric pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed "Can you at least tell me where the rest of my staff have gone?"

"Across the road to the coffee shop. They should be back soon." Jeremy said.

"Good. They better be back here ASAP because we've got a new member of staff to introduce. They've been relocated to here, along with a promotion."

Tyler growled. "Great. Now just another prick to rub in their higher rank to us."

Klaus chuckled at Tyler's irritation. He hated the guy, so he loved it when something annoyed or upset him. "Relax, mate. This doesn't concern me, though it should concern you since you're not so fantastic at your job, whereas I –"

"Would you two just shut up?" Alaric said.

"Well, finally someone else is blunt enough to tell them that, too." Katherine said as she entered the room with Elena, Rebekah and Bonnie. Elena walked around the room and handed each of them coffees, trying her best to be a decent secretary during her first few weeks on the job. Bonnie went and took a seat next to her boyfriend Jeremy, while Rebekah just went and sat on her boyfriend's lap, giving Matt a kiss before passing him his coffee. Klaus scowled at the two of them and turned his attention back to Alaric.

"Well? When do we meet our newest recruit?"

"You get to meet her now." Lexi, their Deputy Inspector, said as she walked into the room with their Assistant Chief of Police, Elijah. All the boys shared a confused look.

"Um, did you say_ she_?" Tyler asked.

"Yes, Lockwood. I said _she_. Don't start being sexist."

"Great," Klaus said. "Another woman to boss us around."

"As if we don't already have enough of that." Kol said, finally deciding to speak up.

Klaus and Kol shared a look, both smirking. "I'm glad we're on the same page here, brother."

Elijah frowned at the two of them, then looked over the entire crew. "I want you all to make our newest Lieutenant of the Homicide Department, Caroline Forbes, feel welcome." He said and turned his attention towards the doorway, everyone else following his gaze.

Klaus' eyes grew wide when he saw her walk in and he had to remind himself to keep a calm expression around everyone. Caroline Forbes was instantly an exquisite beauty in his eyes. She was a tall young woman with amazing long legs. Her skin was a soft cream, making her bright blue eyes stand out brilliantly amongst the rest of her gorgeous features. Her blonde hair cascaded around her shoulders in waves, framing her face beautifully.

"Wait, she's our lieutenant?" Kol said, snapping Klaus out of his reverie. "A blonde _girl_ is in charge of _us_?"

"Shut the bloody hell up, Kol." Klaus snapped at his brother, then turned his attention back to Caroline with a smirk, looking her up and down. "The lady deserves a nice welcome."

Caroline looked a little uncomfortable at Kol's remark and pressed her lips into a thin line at Klaus' comment. They made eye contact briefly, the blonde beauty clearly studying him, trying to work out what she was going to have to put up with every shift. Klaus grinned at her devilishly and she scoffed at him with a roll of her eyes.

She stood up straight as she began to address them all. "Hello everyone. As Assistant Chief Mikaelson and Deputy Inspector Branson said, I'm your new Lieutenant for the Homicide Department, so most of you will be working with me from now on, specifically the Sergeants."

Klaus just sat there, awestruck by her honey-sweet voice. It complimented the rest of her perfectly. A smirk crept onto his lips when he realised they were going to be working together.

Katherine threw her arms up in the air, almost spilling her coffee. "Well thank god! I hated being the only girl on the team, especially being stuck with them." She said, glaring over at Klaus and Kol.

"You love us, Kat." Kol replied with a smirk.

"Oh shut up. All you Mikaelson's are the same."

"Kol, you're giving us a bad reputation in front of our gorgeous newest recruit already." He said with a shake of his head.

Caroline looked at all three of them and frowned, looking over at Katherine. "Looks like we'll both unfortunately be stuck with these two now."

Klaus scowled at Caroline's comment. She said it as if it was a burden. "Hey now, love. No need to be so brash. I'm not as horrible as my dear brother here. I can assure you of that." He said with a devilish grin.

Caroline furrowed her brows, thin creases appearing on her forehead. "I wouldn't be so sure, Mikaelson. I can tell already that you both need a lesson in respecting your officials." She said bluntly.

Kol and Klaus shared a look, then Klaus stood up so he was taller than her, just to prove to her that he was the dominant one here. "Just because you've got a higher rank and a nicer badge, doesn't mean you can just waltz in here and start telling us what's wrong with our personalities when you've only just walked into_ our_ department not even five minutes ago, Sweetheart. Maybe _you_ need to have a lesson on respect."

She crossed her arms defensively over her chest. "_Excuse me_?" she said, clearly not expecting him to back chat her. "I don't think this is the best way to make a first impression on your lieutenant." She said with a scowl.

"So you're convinced I'm trying to impress you, are you, love?" he sneered and she scoffed.

"Don't change the subject."

"Of course, Lieutenant Forbes." He said, saying her title slowly with a smirk on his face, trying to make her uncomfortable like he did with every woman.

However, she just narrowed her eyes at him, not letting his tone get to her. She had a harder shell than he'd anticipated. "Just get back to work. I'll call a meeting with you three tomorrow so we can discuss whatever issues we all have with each other already so we can perform our jobs to a greater standard."

"I look forward to it."

She rolled her eyes, exchanged a few words with Lexi, Elijah and Alaric, then the four of them walked out, Alaric giving them a warning look before exiting.

"She's only here for not even ten minutes and you're already trying to seduce her. Jesus." Kol said with a shake of his head, everyone else responding in the same way.

"Shut up, Kol." Klaus said, still staring at the door Caroline just disappeared through. She hadn't given in to him, hadn't looked uncomfortable when he tried to do so, she had actually stuck up for herself against him – the first person to do so apart from Katherine who was just naturally always like that. As if her being ridiculously hot wasn't enough, the fact that she was strong, stuck up for herself and didn't take anyone's shit just made him even more attracted to her. She seemed like a pain in the ass, especially since she was higher ranked, but surely he could easily change that about her.

He smirked. "I think she's going to be hard to work with."

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**How did you guys like it? :) Let me know your thoughts and opinions in your reviews that I absolutely love reading! There wasn't really any Klaroline in this one, but there will be in future chapters because this was basically an introduction to the story. Please review!**


	2. The Alpha and the Beta

**Hi guys! I've finally finished and polished chapter 2 for you all! This one revolves around the meeting that Caroline said she was going to call with her sergeants, and she has a little conversation with Katherine later on.**

**Also, thank you for all the positive reviews on the first chapter :) I find that they really motivate me to update my stories sooner because I know that you are all enjoying them. Once again, thank you, and enjoy the new chapter: The Alpha and the Beta! :)**

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"Seriously? Are you that thick?" Caroline exasperated. She'd only been in the same room as Klaus for not even twenty minutes and she already felt the need to slap him across the face. She'd had to send Elena off to get her yet another coffee just so she could make it through this meeting. "You haven't even known me for two days and you already think you know me. You know fuck all about me."

Klaus leaned forward in his chair, his palms flat on the table in front of him. He narrowed his eyes at her. "I know you're a drama queen. But then again, anyone can see that."

Caroline groaned and pressed two fingers to her temples in an attempt to make herself think clearly. "Because you frustrate me and make me act like this."

"So you're saying I have an effect on you."

"No, I'm saying you're a pain in the a–"

"Here's your latté, Care." Elena cut her off as she walked into the room. She stopped short and looked between them. "Oh, sorry, bad time."

Caroline waved it off. "It's no problem, Elena. Thanks."

Elena gave her the latté and turned to leave when Katherine stopped her. "Bring us some biscuits, would you? I'm hungry and it would go down well with coffee."

Elena pressed her lips into a thin line and Kol rephrased Katherine's sentence. "Would you be a dear and bring us some biscuits, Elena?" he said, though it didn't have any friendlier a tone than Katherine.

Caroline sighed as she watched Elena nod and walk out. "Do you really need to be so cruel? She's only new here."

"Just like you, sweetheart." Klaus chimed in.

Caroline turned to glare at him with a scowl. "You don't need to put in your two cents worth, Klaus."

"Actually, I feel that I do. My opinion and statement of facts is just as important as yours."

Caroline pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to think of how the hell to break down his ego. "As your lieutenant, I –"

"No, you listen here, sweetheart," he cut her off, "don't you try and use your higher rank against me. I've been in this department for seven years and I know how to do my job perfectly fine without you showing up and telling me to have an attitude and personality check, because you clearly need to have several yourself."

"I worked hard to get where I am, Mikaelson," she shot back, standing up from her seat and pressing her palms onto the table as she stared him down. "I don't need you to tell me what to do, but you have no choice but to listen to me, so here's what's going to happen. You're going to get your ass back to your office, you're going to do your job, and you're going to do as I say, because whether you like it or not, you follow orders from me now."

Klaus stood up and glared back at her, leaning across the table. Caroline wasn't going to deny it; he looked hot when he was mad, but it didn't overpower her anger towards him in that moment. "I don't doubt you've worked hard to gain your position as lieutenant, I just doubt your ability to lead us, especially me." He said with a sneer. "You see, love, I'm the alpha male here. You're simply just the Beta, or lower, just the new addition to the pack."

"Well, I don't think Elena is coming back with those biscuits, so I'm out of here." Katherine muttered and walked out, Kol not too far behind her. Klaus and Caroline didn't even notice them leave.

"Are you kidding? Seriously? Just give up already. Do I literally need to rub my badge in your face?"

"I thought you were a feisty one," Klaus stated with a smirk, "I like a bit of aggression in a woman."

Caroline groaned and rolled her eyes. "Stop right there, and go. The issue isn't among all of us. It's between you and me because you don't like the fact that the new girl is in charge of you. You want to be in charge of everyone else, but that's never going to happen with your disrespectful attitude."

"I'd _love_ to be in charge of _you_, sweetheart." He said with a smirk. "I can assure you in more ways than one."

Caroline's jaw dropped, shocked at what he'd just said and she felt her cheeks flush red. She pointed to the door. "Get out. Now." was all she could manage to get out without her face turning any redder.

Klaus smirked, realising he had gotten under her skin to some extent, and stood up straight. "Of course, Lieutenant Forbes. As you wish." He walked out the door and shut it behind him, leaving Caroline to stand in there and think over the conversation that just went down.

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"He's an absolute ass." Caroline muttered as she went through her papers, organising her desk. Katherine sat in the chair on the other side of Caroline's desk, swivelling back and forth in it with her legs crossed.

"No need to remind me. I've been in the same department as him for three years now. You'll soon understand my pain even more."

Caroline groaned at the thought. She didn't want to have to deal with his attitude and his snarkiness at all, but she would have to if she wanted to keep her job here. "He's not going to make this any easier, is he?" she asked.

"I doubt it."

"Oh, joy."

"He is pretty hot, though."

Caroline raised an eyebrow at Katherine's remark and Katherine rolled her eyes.

"Oh, come on. You can't say you haven't thought about it. All of the girls every time they walk into our department let their jaws practically hit the floor when they first meet him. Apart from you, anyway. But I'm sure you secretly think so, too." She said with a smirk on her face.

Caroline shook her head. "I'm not answering that, because I don't want to and because I don't need to. You know that neither of us can stand being in the same room as each other, and it's only been two days so far." She pointed out.

"Think whatever you want, Caroline, but I can see it, and I'm pretty sure the fact that you didn't fall at his feet the minute you walked in is the reason why he's constantly throwing the bait out to you. Because apart from me – who we all know he can't stand – you are the only woman by far that has challenged him, and everyone knows Klaus likes a challenge."

Caroline bit her lip in thought as she put her papers away, listening to Katherine's words. He did say that he liked aggression in women… _No, don't think about it, Caroline_.

She shook her head to clear it. "Look, let's just get through the rest of today and you can keep tabs on your theories later."

Katherine shrugged. "Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you. Once he sets his eyes on someone, he doesn't stop until he gets them."

"Well then, he's going to have to have plenty of time on his hands if wants to get me, because that's never going to happen."

Katherine rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Care. Have fun with that."

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**So what did you guys think? I'm still getting some of the plot started up in these few chapters, but I promise you there will be more Klaroline to come *wink, wink, nudge, nudge* ;) haha. Please review, and I'll have the next chapter up as soon as possible! **

**Ex oh ex oh**

**Celeste **


	3. -- Message to the fans --

**Hi everyone, **

**Sorry for not updating this fanfic lately, I've had a lot of work to do for university that I haven't had any time. A few people have told me they're eager for an update (which makes me extremely happy and eager to write more!). I'm on holidays for the next two weeks now, so I'll hopefully get another two chapters up by the end of next week! Sorry once again; I just want to make this story the best I can so you guys can enjoy it :)**

**Keep a look out for the next chapter! It will be up soon, I promise!**

** Celeste xoxo**


	4. Meetings, Criminals and Klaus

**Hi everyone! Sorry for not updating sooner. I've had a lot of work to do for university and I was having a bit of writers block. However, I'm on holidays now until the end of next week and I have mapped out the story all the way up to chapter 8! So you'll be getting more frequent updates from now on. In a short summary, this chapter revolves around Caroline's first meeting with her higher officials about her first assignment and is followed by a conversation with Elijah. I will say no more! Please review and I hope you enjoy chapter 3: _Meetings, Criminals and Klaus._**

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Caroline's alarm buzzed at six a.m. exactly the next morning and she rolled over onto her stomach to reach over and hit the stop button. She lay there for a moment to let her tired eyes adjust to the light coming through the gap in her curtains before sleepily rolling out of bed. She grabbed her uniform as she walked to the ensuite bathroom and tossed them over the towel rack to keep them from creasing and started up the shower.

As she washed her blonde locks with the strawberry-scented shampoo, she went over what she had to do today. It would be a rather easy but draining day all the same. She had a meeting with her higher officials Alaric, Elijah and Lexi first thing in the morning to fill her in on what had happened in the department lately and what her first assignment with her sergeants would be. That would probably go for two hours the most. Later she could go get coffee across the street with her co-workers if any of them were on break when she was. She would finish the day with some paper work and then could be on her way home.

Once done showering, she dressed herself for work, grabbed her keys and headed off to the department.

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As soon as she arrived, she said a quick hello to Elena, made herself a coffee and headed for the conference room to her morning meeting. Elijah and Lexi were already seated opposite each other at the long table.

"Good morning Commissioner Mikaelson, Deputy Branson." Caroline said with a curt nod before taking a seat next to Elijah.

Elijah returned the nod and Lexi smiled. "Good morning to you, too, Lieutenant. And please, you can call me Lexi. I'm sure Elijah won't mind being called by his name, too."

Caroline returned the smile. "Whatever you prefer to be called, I'm quite happy either way."

"I'm glad this Lieutenant came with such impeccable manners." Alaric said as he strode into the room.

"Good morning Chief." The three of them said in unison as Alaric took his seat at the head of the table.

As Alaric was taking some papers out of a folder, Elijah leaned over to Caroline and spoke in a low voice so to not distract Alaric. "May I speak with you after the meeting, Caroline? It concerns my brother, Niklaus."

Caroline's lips set into a thin line in distaste at the name, but she nodded, knowing she couldn't exactly say no to her Commissioner. That, and she was also curious to know what it was Elijah had to say about his brother. "Yeah, sure. I was just going to do a bit of paperwork before I left."

"Alright," Alaric said and brought them back to attention. He put the papers back in a neat pile apart from the two he was looking over that he had displayed in front of him. "Thank you all for coming in as requested, and welcome Lieutenant, to your first meeting with us." He said with a hint of a crooked smile. "This meeting more or less is going to show you what goes down in these meetings; some of which you will and won't be required to attend. Today's meeting is centred on informing you of what we've been dealing with lately, that which is Deputy Branson's area of expertise."

"Right," Lexi said and folded her arms so she could lean forward on the table comfortably, "I'm just going to dive right in. Recently, we've been dealing with a new threat in town. This threat is known as the Salvatore brothers. They go by the names of Damon and Stefan – Damon being the oldest and Stefan the younger brother. Damon, as far as we can tell, is more of a force to be reckoned with compared to his brother, though from our research, we can also tell that Stefan tends to have spurts where he's just as bad, or even worse, than his brother. He's become known as the 'Ripper' during these times."

Lexi took two pictures out from her manila folder and passed them across the table to Caroline. They were two separate images of the Salvatore's. One of the men had black hair, a very distinct jaw line, intense blue eyes, and a smirk that sent a small shiver down Caroline's spine. The second one wasn't as intense – she guessed it was Stefan – but she could see that his eyes had an eerie feeling behind them, like he was hiding something. Probably the part of him that had earned the name 'Ripper'.

"Now," Lexi continued, "So far, we're disappointed to say that we don't yet know what these two want, but we do know that they're not going to stop any time soon. They've invaded several houses and killed several people, but we don't know why yet. That's where you and your sergeants come in. We want you to find out what these two want, how they're going about it, and to put a stop to this mess. Of course, you will be given back up. You may use our detectives and officers to your disposal as long as we have given our approval of you using them on your team and our permission to carry out your missions."

Caroline nodded, taking it all in. Lexi gave her a manila folder that contained files on both of the suspects and whatever research they were able to uncover so far. She placed the images of the suspects inside the folder and placed it neatly in front of her.

"How do you feel about it, Lieutenant?" Alaric asked as he eyed her carefully.

"I'll need to have a read through the files before I can properly decide, but so far I think this is going to make me feel right at home. I can't wait to get started."

"Great. That's exactly what we want to hear." Alaric said before continuing onto other matters for the meeting.

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After the meeting ended, Caroline stood from her chair and grabbed the manila folder before Elijah ushered her out of the room and into his office. He took a seat behind his desk and gestured for Caroline to sit opposite him. She did so and placed the folder on her lap as she waited for him to speak.

"How are you settling in, Caroline?" Elijah asked which caused a confused look to cover Caroline's face.

"There's been a few spats among myself and one or two other employees, but other than that, I've settled in fine. This place is already like a second home to me."

"Yes, I see." Elijah said and clasped his hands together and placed them on the desk in front of him. "Now, that one employee wouldn't happen to be Niklaus, would it? I understand that my brother can be a little intense at times. I do hope he hasn't made you uncomfortable in any way or have made you regret your decision on agreeing to be relocated here."

Caroline shook her head. "Oh no, I don't regret it at all. But yes, he is a little intense at times, but I won't tolerate it and he knows that." She didn't mention how he made her feel vulnerable when he made that crude remark towards her the previous day. _'I'd love to be in charge of you, sweetheart. I can assure you in more ways than one.'_ She felt a shiver run down her spine at the thought of it and her cheeks flushed red.

Elijah frowned, and Caroline didn't know if he could see her blush or not, but she made an effort to act like it wasn't there.

"I do apologise for my brother if he has in any way upset you. He is a very dominant character and likes getting his way with things. With him, he likes things either his way, or no one's way. I apologise if he hasn't been cooperative."

Caroline raised a hand and shook her head. "There's no need to apologise, Commissioner Mikaelson. I'm fine, really. And if something had happened, I'd want him to be the one apologising, not you. It's not your responsibility."

"But it is mine and Deputy Branson and Chief Saltzman's responsibility to make sure our employees respect one another and are safe in the work environment." He said and stood from his chair, Caroline following him in suit. "If there is ever an issue with my brother, please don't hesitate to let me know."

She gave him a grateful smile and followed him to where he held the door open for her. "Thank you, sir."

"You are quite welcome, Caroline. Have a good afternoon."

"And you, too." She said before leaving the office and walking down the hall.

Before heading back to her office, she went past the staff room to wash her coffee cup and found Klaus there. Their eyes locked as she walked in and she swallowed before forcing herself to break her gaze away from his and head over to the sink. She quickly washed her cup and placed it on the drying rack, all the while trying to keep herself from turning around to look at him again. She bit her lip and dared herself to look over her shoulder, and sure enough, he was still watching her. She hastily turned on her heels and headed out the door to her office without another glance back.

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**What did you all think? Did you get a little surprise about the Salvatore's being the criminals? Do you like how the story is going so far? Let me know in reviews! I love hearing from you guys and it motivates me to keep writing. I will update soon!**

**Celeste xoxo**


	5. Klaus' Hand of Cards

**Hi incredible Klaroline fans! I've been absolutely loving writing this story and I love receiving reviews from you guys even more. I'm glad you've been enjoying this story as much as I have. This chapter is the start of the story line really getting more intense, and is a bit of a table-turner for some of the characters. Also, I keep adding in mentions of the boys' poker games, because I think they need a little game that brings the boys together (so it's like their thing) and that's how I came up with the title of this chapter. Anyway, I've said enough! As I promised, here is chapter 4: _Klaus' Hand of Cards_.**

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After the meeting earlier with Alaric, Elijah and Lexi, Caroline had spent the rest of her day in her office doing paper work, deciding to skip the coffee break with the others. She felt a need to focus solely on one thing and one thing only. Yes, it was so she had less paper work to do for the rest of the week, but even she couldn't deny it was an excuse for her to try to think about anything other than Klaus.

As she read over the papers in the yellow manila folder Lexi had given her to brush up on details of her first assignment, she pressed her lips into a thin line. She'd have to call a meeting with her team. She was sure Katherine wouldn't mind – she'd probably see it as time for the two of them to catch up and to watch how Klaus would act around Caroline. As for Kol and Klaus, they spent most of their time in the department anyway, playing poker with the other guys in the staff room. Caroline didn't think they'd mind being taken away from a poker game for a short while… Okay, Kol might, but she was sure it would just give Klaus an excuse to be around her. She knew it would be a good excuse to see him…

She put her head in her hands at the thought and pressed her fingers to her temples. "No Caroline. No, no, no. Don't you even think about." She scolded herself.

"Don't think about what?"

Caroline jumped in her seat at the voice and reached for the pistol hanging off her belt out of reflex. She relaxed and released a sigh of relief when she saw it was Klaus, but then tensed up again a moment later.

"It's none of your business." She replied a little breathlessly.

"Of course it isn't, love. I was simply curious."

He stepped into her office and rested his hands on the back of the chair opposite her at the desk. Caroline noticed he was thinking for a moment, probably trying to decide whether he should make a witty comment or not, but what he said shocked her into silence.

"Caroline, I've come to apologise for my recent behaviour." He said, and she could tell that apologies weren't something he gave out often. She bit her lip and nodded once, waiting for him to finish.

"I'm not one to let people instruct me what to do and how to do things, and I let that get in the way of my, our, jobs. You're the Lieutenant and I've come to an understanding that I need to respect that. So, if you would kindly accept my apology…"

As he trailed off, he gave her a look that was somewhat stern, as if she only had one choice in the situation, and that one choice was to accept it. She shook off the intense look he was giving her, not letting it get to her, and sat up straight with her chin held high. "Alright. I accept your apology. I just hope you live up to it."

"Of course I will, sweetheart. I give you my word."

"Your word doesn't mean anything. That's just something people say to get off the hook."

"No." he replied firmly. "I've always been a man of my word. So when I say I give you my word, I give you my word and don't break it."

She sighed, not sure whether to believe him or not, but decided to give him the chance. "Okay, fine. I believe you."

Caroline could see the tension in his jaw. "You're a horrible liar, Caroline."

"Whatever," she scoffed and picked up her papers that Lexi gave her. "We'll continue this conversation later. Right now, I need to gather up the rest of my team and call a meeting. You wouldn't happen to know where Kol and Katherine are, would you?"

Klaus smirked at her question as she stood up from her chair. "Where else would they be, love? Kol's playing poker in the staff room and Katerina being Katerina is supervising the game because she feels that her commentary is of such importance."

Caroline rolled her eyes at the remark, but she could still see the truth in it. "And you clearly think your commentary is needed too. Now, let's –"

"Lieutenant Forbes! Lieutenant," Matt called as he hurried into her office. He stopped for a moment to catch his breath.

"You can call me Caro–"

"I know, I know, but that's not important right now. In all due respect, Lieutenant, I don't mean to cut you off, but there's been another home invasion by the Salvatore's. Jeremy's on his way to the scene as we speak."

Caroline looked from Matt to Klaus whose face contorted in thought. "I don't suppose the poker game is going to be continued today, is it?"

Caroline looked at him disgusted and resisted the urge to slap his arm before grabbing the sleeve of his shirt and pulling him out of her office after her.

"Thank you for keeping me posted, Matt. I'm calling that meeting right now."

Klaus grabbed Caroline's hand and loosened her grip on his shirt as they turned the corner of the corridor. "If you aren't careful, you're going to rip my shirt off."

She quickly turned around on her heels. "Why on Earth would I do that? I wouldn't do that. I'm not that kind of person. Why would I even think of doing that?" she babbled, flustered by the comment.

"Relax, love. I was just pointing something out." He said half-heartedly as he put a hand on the small of her back and lead her over to the lobby where Elena was working behind the front office desk. Caroline rolled her shoulders, trying to shrug off his touch, but shivered instead. She bit her lip when he let his hand fall back to his side, suspecting that he might have felt her shiver. Elena looked up from her computer at the two of them and her brows furrowed in confusion. "Do you guys need anything?" she asked in her sweet yet shy voice. Once Caroline saw Elena's suspicious expression, she found her voice.

"Yes, actually. Can you please let the sergeants know there is an emergency meeting right now in the conference room? It's about the Salvatore's, so it's pretty urgent."

Elena blinked a few times, probably processing it all, then nodded. "Sure thing, Care." She said as she finished typing something on her computer. Once she finished typing, she handed Caroline a green manila folder. "Tyler came through with Matt and told me to give you this. He said it has all the details for the Salvatore case."

Caroline said a quick thank you and started towards the conference room, Klaus striding along-side her with his hands in his jeans pockets. He looked too calm for her liking. Someone's house had just been broken into by the Salvatore's and he was acting like he was going for a stroll in the park. She shook her head, pushing the thought to the back of her head and walked inside, taking a seat at the head of the table, Klaus taking the seat to her right. She placed her folder and the new green one on the table and started shuffling through the papers as Klaus leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed and watched her.

"If this is another one of those we-need-to-learn-to-work-together-without-killing-each-other meetings, then I'm leaving. Again." Katherine said as she strode in.

Klaus smirked at her as she sat down. "Don't worry, Katerina. We've worked out our… differences."

"I guess you could put it that way." Caroline said as she picked out the necessary papers and spread them over the table for everyone to see. "And this meeting isn't about working out our differences," she put the pictures of the Salvatore brothers down on the centre of the table, "This is about our first assignment together and the break in that has just been discovered."

"A break-in? Finally, something interesting." Kol clapped his hands together eagerly with a large grin on his face as he went and took a seat next to his bother. "I like these random break-ins. They're the most exciting part of the job."

"This isn't a game, Kol." Caroline said sternly.

"Oh, no, but it sure would be a fun one."

Klaus turned to Kol with a blank expression. "Kol?"

"Yes brother?"

"Shut the bloody hell up."

Kol raised his hands in front of himself and leaned back in his seat. "Well, you're no fun anymore."

Both Katherine and Caroline shared a roll of their eyes at Kol. "Anyway, the details for the assignment?"

"Right," Caroline said with a nod and dove right in, "We all know about the Salvatore's, but we don't know that much about them. Deputy Branson gave me a copy of her files on them yesterday during our meeting and there honestly wasn't much to go on. No location, no purpose of crimes, no connections, no nothing. All we've got so far is their names, appearance, and knowledge of their habit of breaking into people's homes. They pulled off another break-in and escaped less than half an hour ago. Matt, Tyler and Jeremy are already at the scene and are searching the house for anything out of the ordinary that may have drawn them there. They'll be questioning the owners, too. However, one thing we do know from previous questioning is that a majority of the victims from the past break-ins have admitted to knowing at least one of the Salvatore brothers." Caroline said and passed a sheet of paper with names on it to the middle of the table for everyone to see. "That's the best connection and lead we have so far. It's a place to start, at least, and hopefully we will have other leads when the others get back from the crime scene."

They all looked over the list carefully, as if trying to remember each and every name by memory. Katherine picked up the sheet of paper to get a closer look.

"If this is the best lead we've had so far, we need to take action as soon as possible. They have to still be in the area if it was less than half an hour ago."

"Or they could already be speeding down the highway to another town." Kol interjected.

"Well, it's the best we've got so far, so we need to take the opportunity." Caroline replied.

"I agree with you ladies," Klaus said with a gesture to the paper Katherine was still holding, "I think we just need to bite the bullet and make a plan of action using what we've got already. If we don't, we're going to be stuck with a growing list of break-ins while these Salvatore's get what they're after."

Caroline nodded. "So it's settle then. We're going back over this list, questioning everyone who knows of the Salvatore's, gather whatever information and evidence we can from the crime scenes, and next time they attack, we'll be ready. Oh, and Kol, can you make sure to contact Jeremy, Matt and Tyler and get them to retrieve any footage of the attack if there is any?"

Kol gave Caroline a two-finger salute. "Sure thing, Lieutenant."

"Okay, great. Meeting closed. I'll contact you all when I need to see you next."

They all started leaving the room as Caroline gathered up her papers, but Klaus stayed back to help her put them back in the folders.

"You can go back to your poker game, you know? You don't need to help me pack up."

"I know." He replied as he put some of them back into the green manila folder as she packed the yellow one. "I was wrong to have doubts about your leadership skills. They showed through today, Caroline, and you're clearly more than capable of being a Lieutenant."

She put the folder down and looked at him. "We've already had this discussion, Klaus."

"Once again, I know." He passed her the packed green folder. "I just felt the need to remind you in case all the responsibility and the fate of this town got to your head and made you forget my inspiring little speech from earlier."

She raised an eyebrow and tried to hold back an amused smile. "Inspiring speech? Seriously?"

He returned her smirk with a devilish one of his. "Don't pretend like it didn't have an effect on you, love."

She felt her cheeks heat up, slightly embarrassed. "I don't need to pretend because there's nothing hide. And why do you keep calling me love and sweetheart?"

His smirk grew. "I don't know, love. You tell me."

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**What did you all think? Let me know in reviews! I'll update soon.**

**Celeste xoxo**


	6. Hey There, Blondie

**Hello again Klaroline fangirls/fanboys! I'm back with another chapter! Two chapters in one day, wow, I was on a roll today haha. I really enjoyed writing this chapter, and want to keep it a surprise, so I won't give you a summary for this one. I think this chapter is really going to shock and surprise you *cue slightly evil laugh*. Anyway, please read and review (I'm really curious as to what your reactions to this chapter will be!) and enjoy chapter 5: _Hey There, Blondie_.**

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Caroline arrived home exhausted after her shift at the department and collapsed onto her bed, staring at the ceiling. She loved her job, but it was tiring. They'd had a rough few weeks in the department, the Salvatore's having broken into another two houses and leaving them with the same results – a handful of the victims knowing the Salvatore's previously and not giving away too many details. Caroline had a feeling they were hiding something.

It had become easier working with Klaus, the arguments having died down after their talk in her office previously, but it didn't mean it was any easier to be near him. She would try to focus on the set assignment, but found her mind constantly wondering back to him, her eyes darting over to look at him briefly before he turned to look back at her. Katherine wasn't hiding how entertaining it was for her to watch the two of them from the side lines, and she knew it was affecting Caroline in ways she didn't want to ever admit, but Katherine couldn't deny that she thrived on Caroline's nervousness around Klaus.

Caroline snapped out of her reverie when her phone buzzed with the ringtone she had set for when Katherine called her – _Hard Out Here_, by Lily Allen – started playing. She answered the call and held the phone up to her ear.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Get dressed and be at _The Chocolate House_ by nine o'clock. We're having a girl's night away from work. And don't worry, it's not going to be a late night. Just a few cocktails and some sweet desserts." Katherine practically ordered. "And don't say '_but I'm tired_,' because I know you're tired. You just need to get out every now and then. You've been working too hard."

Caroline sighed. "But –"

"No buts," Katherine cut her off. "If you don't willingly come, I'll go to your house and get you myself."

"Alright, alright, I'm getting ready. I'll be there at nine."

"Great. I'll see you soon." Katherine said then ended the call.

Caroline sighed before grabbing a pair of denim blue jeans, a pale yellow silk top, and headed for the shower. She quickly showered to wake herself up, dressed herself and quickly curled her hair as efficiently as she could in the short time frame. She threw on a pair of black heels, grabbed her clutch and headed outside to her car.

* * *

Caroline arrived at _The Chocolate House_ fifteen minutes early. She didn't like being late, and she was too organised for such a thing as lateness. It was always good to be on top of things. She found a table with enough seats and sat down to wait for the others. Rebekah was the next to arrive, wearing the typical top quality fashion brands along with her Prada heels and her Louis Vuitton handbag. Her blue eyes gleamed along with the large smile on her face when she saw Caroline.

"Caroline, darling, it's so good to finally see you again. It's been what? About a month since I last saw you?"

"About a month, yeah. Work's been too hectic for a social life to exist." She said as she got up to hug her. "It's good to see you, too."

They sat down at the table and Rebekah put down her bag before pouring herself a glass of water from the bottle on the table.

"So," Caroline said, "How are things with you and Matt these days?"

"Oh, we're great." Rebekah beamed before taking a sip of water. "I know we've only been together for four months, but I really do love him. Don't tell Niklaus and Kol that, though. They'll go mental like they usually do." She said with a roll of her eyes.

Caroline smiled. "That's great, Bekah, and yeah, best not to tell them. We all know Kol likes to crack jokes and Klaus has a bit of a temper."

"Speaking of Klaus, what's going on with you two?"

Caroline raised a brow in question and felt her cheeks turn pink. "Nothing's going on. We've just argued a lot and agreed to put a stop to it a few weeks ago."

"So there's no flirty little exchanges or anything?"

"No," Caroline said with a shake of her head, "You're brother's just a flirt who has a big ego and he knows I don't like it."

Rebekah raised a brow in question, a small smirk appearing on her face. "Are you sure, Caroline? Because I think you enjoy it."

Caroline felt her cheeks turn even redder. Was she that easy to read? She knew deep down that she did like the attention Klaus gave her – she didn't approve of it – but she wasn't going to admit that to anyone. "I don't approve of it, Bekah. It's distracting and I need to focus on work."

"You know, you can work and have a love life at the same time, Caroline. Matt manages it easily. Besides, my brother never shuts up about you. That, and Kol never stops giving him shit about it either. I swear to God he's obsessed with you."

Caroline's jaw went slack at Rebekah's words and she struggled to formulate a full sentence. "He talks about me at home?"

Rebekah gave her a _duh_ expression and nodded her head. "And draws you. I wouldn't be surprised if half his studio is full of drawings and paintings of you."

Caroline shook her head. "Now this is just getting creepy. You're making my colleague – who works in the police force, mind you – sound like a stalker."

"Who's a stalker at work?"

They both looked up to find Katherine, Elena and Bonnie walk up to the table together and take a seat. Rebekah smirked and went to respond, but Caroline cut in before she could say anything.

"No one. We're just messing around."

Katherine shrugged it off and grabbed the closest menu, first looking at the desserts, then at the drinks list. "Hmm, is anyone going to go for a cocktail, or am I the only one?"

Caroline looked at Rebekah who still had a smirk on her face and turned back to Katherine. "I'm going to need a drink."

Katherine beamed. "Fantastic. Anyone else?"

"You guys really shouldn't drink too much. It's not good for you." Bonnie said with a warning note in her voice.

"Let them go. Everyone deserves a little fun every now and then, and they've got an intense job to keep up with." Elena replied. Katherine's eyes widened in shock at Elena's comment. No one ever expected Elena to be one to do anything 'out-there', especially Katherine.

"Since when does Elena Gilbert live and be fun to be around?"

Elena looked taken aback by Katherine's remark, but sat up straight. "I'll have you know that I can be completely rebellious when I feel like it."

"Whatever," Katherine said, not really caring, "Now back to the original question: Drinks for anyone else?"

When the others shook their heads and went back to looking at the dessert menu's Katherine got up. "Alright then, I'll go order ours, Caroline."

Caroline nodded, gave Katherine the money and watched her head over to the register. "As much as I love you girls, I'm way too tired to socialize tonight."

"Well that cocktail Katherine is getting for you will wake you up." Elena said.

"As much as it worries me, I know."

The girls chatted for a while until Katherine came back with the drinks and placed a milky one in front of Caroline. It had chocolate dusted on the top of it. Caroline furrowed her brows in confusion.

"What cocktail is this?"

"A toblerone cocktail. It's got baileys in it. You'll love it, it tastes great."

Caroline took a sip of her drink and gave it a nod of approval. "Okay, this is a really good cocktail." She said and drank some more of it faster than she should have.

"Woah, woah, woah, slow down there, Care." Bonnie said, taking hold of Caroline's glass and pulling it away from her. Caroline frowned and Rebekah took the glass back and set it on the table in front of Caroline.

"Oh, let her go. She's had to deal with both Kol and Niklaus the past month. She needs it."

Katherine smirked, having witnessed several of the arguments Klaus and Caroline had had previously. "I'm sure she has no problem with dealing with Klaus."

Caroline stood up and quickly skulled the rest of her drink, not wanting to listen to another word about her and Klaus. "I'm going to the bathroom." She said and walked off.

Once she made her way into the bathroom, she opened her bag and fixed her makeup, re-applying her eyeliner. As she finished one eye, Elena walked in.

"Sorry about them, Care. Don't listen to them."

"It's fine, Elena. Really."

Elena watched her and fiddled with the strap of her bag. Elena looked awkward, and the silence wasn't making it any better.

"So," Caroline said, trying to break the silence, "Do you have a boyfriend, Elena?" Elena raised a brow at Caroline's question, and Caroline shrugged. "You said just before that you can be rebellious when you feel like it. Surely you're capable of getting yourself a boyfriend."

"Oh. Um, yeah, I do, actually." Elena said and blushed.

Caroline grinned slightly. "Yeah? What's his name?"

Elena blinked a few times as if she had to remember. "Oh, his name? Uh, Damian."

"You don't need to be so awkward about it, Elena." Caroline chuckled.

"Right, yeah," Elena laughed lightly, "Sorry, I'm just a little tired. I can't really function without sleep."

"Neither can I. Let's just hang around for a little and then go. We're already here; might as well enjoy the girls' company."

* * *

After about another hour and a half, Caroline said goodbye to the girls and headed home. She pulled up in her drive way and got her keys out to open her front door, but noticed it was already open. She looked at it confused, then her eyes widened. Out of reflex, she reached for her gun at her waist, but it wasn't there. She closed her eyes and cursed under her breath. She'd forgotten she left it inside in her drawer.

She slowly opened the door as quietly as possible and crept around her house as silently as she could. She knew how to handle such situations being in the police force, but she'd never expected it to actually happen to her, especially when she wasn't armed.

As she walked around, she noticed no one was down stairs, so she decided to check the second floor. She slowly made her way up the stair case and headed for her room where her gun was. As she put her hand on the door handle to her room, she heard a voice from within.

"…the information. It's not – wait a second, I think I've found something… Ah, here we go. Stefan and Damon Salvatore, file 2396… yes, yes, I know. I'll bring it back to the warehouse… What? No. We aren't stupid enough to break into houses in New Orleans with all of our shit there. Enzo, just liste– Hey, this is a great photo of me. Those cops really…"

Caroline's eyes widened as she listened in and she lost track of the conversation as she realised who was in her house. She took a step back from the door and felt a hand clasp over her mouth and another push her up against the wall. Her eyes widened in shock as she took in his face, all the while trying to scream out for help, but her screams were muffled.

Stefan Salvatore.

"You must be Lieutenant Forbes. Well, hello Lieutenant." He said as he took her all in. "Now why would they have a woman like you as a Lieutenant? You're easy prey, Miss Forbes. And judging by the files my brother and I have found, we are your assignment. Well, that's clearly not going too well for you so far."

Caroline thrashed in his grip to get away from him but his grasp on her tightened.

"Now, now, Miss Forbes, don't try anything drastic. Do you know who I am?"

She looked at him, searching his face. She knew perfectly well who he was, but his hand over her mouth wouldn't let her say so. She nodded in response.

"I thought so. Now, I've got some business to take care of, but first I need to take care of you."

Caroline felt the urgency to make a break for it now before he tried anything. She kneed him in the groin and his grip on her went slack as he groaned in pain. She bolted down the stairs, only to find the other brother, Damon, chasing her down them as he shoved a phone in his pocket. Caroline ran into the kitchen and grabbed a knife from the knife block on the bench, but before she could turn on him, she was shoved into the bench, banging her head on the cabinet above her. She screamed in pain as she crumpled against the counter, but still kept a tight grip on the knife in her hand. She swung at him, but missed, her vision blurred from the dizziness that began to wash over her.

Damon grabbed her wrist and pulled the knife out of her grip and tossed it to the side, pulling her up with his other hand by the front of her shirt. "You really shouldn't have interrupted us, Blondie. Now you've got to pay."

"In your dreams." Caroline said and spat a mouthful of blood on him before throwing an uppercut punch in his direction. She hit his jaw and he groaned. She tore herself out of his grasp, but he caught her again and yanked her back in his direction, only to cop one of Caroline's heels in the stomach. She grabbed the closest thing – a frying pan – and hit him over the head with it. Damon crumpled to the floor against the counter but Caroline fell forward when she felt something collide into her back. She rolled onto her side to find Stefan standing over her with a gun in hand – Caroline's gun.

"This is a nice model you've got here, Miss Forbes. I've always favoured other models, but the Magnum is still one of my favorites. You know, my first gun was the same model, but now I've moved on to bigger toys."

As he spoke, Caroline reached for her knife behind her from earlier as discreetly as possible. Caroline heard Stefan click the safety off on her gun and found him pointing it in between her eyes. She sucked in a breath as she stared down the barrel. In all her career, she'd never once had a gun pointed at her, but she wouldn't consider herself a victim, not now, not ever. She was a Lieutenant for a reason.

She stayed as still as possible, knowing that making any sudden moves would cause her life to end quickly. "Do you really want to pull that trigger and have my entire department after you? Do you really think killing me is going to help in any way?" she said calmly. "I know what it's like to be on your end of the gun. I've been there plenty of times, and I will let you know now, it's not fun to deal with later. I know I did it for the right reasons, to protect Mystic Falls, but you always feel guilt for it at one point or another. And it won't go away."

She was stalling, she could tell he knew it, but she could also see him taking her words into consideration. This must have been the more sympathetic part of him that wasn't in his brother Damon, but Caroline never forgot about the Ripper part of him that she was warned about. The look on his face in that moment, though… It was almost… regretful.

"I'm sorry Miss Forbes, but I can't afford –"

And he was cut off by Caroline's knife.

She swung at him mid-sentence, slicing his calf, and she scrambled out of the way as he fell to the ground clutching at his leg. Damon was coming back to his senses, but Caroline – regretfully, because they were new shoes – kicked him hard in the side several times to buy her some time to grab her gun and bolt out of the house.

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**So, where you surprised? Let me know! **

**Celeste xoxo**


	7. I'll Take Care of You

**Hi Klaroline lovers! I'm back with another chapter! I've been getting really into this story the past week that I've been writing chapters every day. This is the longest chapter I've written so far, and I think there are some very sweet parts in this one that you might like along with some typical Klaus and Caroline talks. I will say no more! Here is chapter 6: _I'll Take Care of You._**

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Klaus was never fond of night shifts. He wanted to be able to spend his Friday night out in town having a few drinks with his mates and perform his usual tricks to make the ladies swoon, but instead he was stuck on a night shift at the department with Tyler. The Lockwood boy had never been one of his favourite people to work with, but Matt had the same shift with them too, so he made it marginally easier to deal with Tyler, but only slightly.

They sat in the staff room around their usual table where they played poker, and Klaus dealt the next round of cards. They were on their break, so every chance they got, they brought out the cards. As Klaus finished dealing the cards, Lexi walked in and crossed her arms.

"Seriously guys. Surely I'm not the only one that sees the irony behind you guys being cops and gambling in our department."

"We're not gambling, Deputy. We're just playing a friendly game of cards." Matt replied.

"That I'm winning as per usual." Klaus said with a smirk. "By all means, Deputy, join us. I'm sure Elijah has driven you to boredom once again in your meeting. My brother has a tendency to do that."

"I'd rather not, but thank you for the offer, Mikaelson." She said and looked at all three of the boys. "Just make sure you get straight back to work as soon as your break is over. I'm keeping an eye on you guys." She said and walked out after making an _I'm-watching-you_ gesture.

"Party crasher." Tyler muttered and Klaus smirked.

"Give her a break, man. She's just doing her job." Matt said.

"Yes," Klaus interjected, "It must be hard to do her job since I know how much of a pain it is to work with you, mate."

Tyler narrowed his eyes at him, but Klaus just leaned back in his chair, his smirk never leaving his face. Matt sighed.

"Let's stop stirring the shit pot and just continue the game." Matt interrupted, not wanting to have to stop yet another argument between the two of them again.

Klaus looked at his hand of cards and stroked his chin in thought before deciding to swap two of his cards. Once the others made their decision, Matt dealt out the replacement cards and Klaus smirked at the sight of his new hand before tossing ten dollars into the centre of the table to bid. Matt folded his cards, giving up on the round. Tyler was deciding what to do when they heard the sound of the front door of the building open and a familiar voice croak out to anyone who could hear her.

"Guys? Guys? Oh God, anyone? Someone?!" the voice called.

The boys jumped up from their chairs and headed through the corridor to the front lobby where the voice was. The boys stopped dead in their tracks when they saw her. Her blonde curls hung messily around her face, patches of it having turned a bloody crimson colour from the blood that seeped from the several wounds on her head, the one on her forehead dripping down the side of her face. Her yellow top was torn and the knees of her jeans were ripped. The expression on her face was a mixture of shock and lethargy, making her look as if she'd witnessed something horrific. Her eyes were glassy and her gun hung limply from her fingers.

Klaus' body set into a mode of shock before recovering and quickly moving over to her. "Caroline, what happened?" he asked and grabbed onto her arms to steady her when he saw her balance waver.

She was speechless as she looked up at him, the ghostly expression never leaving her face, and shook her head at him. He searched her eyes, trying to figure out what she meant and what happened to her. She was stunned from shock.

Klaus saw Tyler step up to Caroline and grabbed her wrist, said "Come on, let's get you cleaned up," and started to pull her away. Klaus grabbed Tyler's arm, pulled Caroline out of Tyler's grip and stared him down.

"She's in shock, completely inaudible, something traumatic has happened to her and all you can think of is 'let's get you cleaned up?' Seriously, Lockwood?" he growled and let go of him roughly. "I can take care of her. You go with Matt and go alert the others or go make yourself useful somewhere you're needed. We don't need a group of people to help one person, mate, and I'm perfectly capable of doing so myself."

Tyler's expression darkened and he clenched his hands. "We can't just leave her like that!" he glowered and gestured sharply towards Caroline who was still frozen from shock. "Stop being such a dick and –"

"Right, come on, man. Let's go." Matt cut in and grabbed Tyler by the back of his shirt before anything else started up. "Let's go." Tyler's obscenities at Klaus could be heard as he continued out of the room and down the hall with Matt. Once they were out of the room, Klaus turned back to Caroline and held her face in his hands, brushing her cheeks lightly with his thumbs to try and break her out of shock.

"Come on, sweetheart. What happened?"

She lifted her eyes to look at his for a moment before looking away and shaking her head. She started breathing heavily as she tried to formulate a sentence.

"My house… They were there. They were in my house."

She looked dazed like she was experiencing nausea and judging by her heavy breathing, Klaus knew she would start hyperventilating soon.

"They broke into my house, Klaus." She said and fisted her hands in her hair, her gun hanging from two fingers. "Oh God, they were both there and he was going to shoot me with my own gun!"

Klaus took the gun out of her hands and secured it in his jacket pocket before taking her wrists gently and removing her hands from her hair.

"Do you know who it was, Caroline?" he asked calmly, "If you do, you need to tell me."

She clutched onto the front of his shirt. "The Salvatore's." she choked out before burying her head in his chest and starting to tremble.

He pulled her to him and held onto her tightly while his mind reeled. They targeted her? They targeted his Caroline? His expression darkened at the thought while he tried to concoct ways to make the bastards pay for what they'd done.

After his moment of being lost in thought, he tried to lead her into the first-aid room but she was too dizzy to walk, so he scooped her up in his arms and carried her in. He put her down on the examination bed and instructed her to not sit up, knowing she'd make herself dizzier.

"Okay, look at me, Caroline." He said and she did so, allowing him to examine the wound on her head. He furrowed his brows. "The bastard got you good. It's going to need stitches."

"He shoved me into the counter and banged my head on the corner of the cabinet."

Klaus scowled at the thought as he rummaged through the cupboards and found a bottle of disinfectant and a handful of cotton balls to clean the wound. He drenched the cotton with the disinfectant and gently wiped the wound clean of blood. She sucked in a breath at the sting of the chemical on the fresh wound and Klaus frowned.

"Sorry, love. But it's better than it being infected." He said as he got a fresh piece of cotton soaked in disinfectant and cleaned the rest of her wounds.

Once he cleaned the wounds and most of the blood, he grabbed a thin needle and string, threading it through the small hole. "And now for the fun part." he said and her eyes widened.

"Please tell me you've done this before and know what you're doing. I'm not too keen on being a test subject."

Klaus smiled down at her, glad she was finally talking. "No need to worry, sweetheart. I've done it before," she relaxed, "on dummies when I was studying first-aid."

"Oh, God help me." She groaned, then coughed horribly.

"I'm not going to hurt you, love. I'd never do that. Now stay still."

He held her still with one hand and carefully stitched the wound together with the other. She bit her lip harder each time the needle made contact with her skin. Halfway through him stitching it up, Alaric and Elijah walked in. Klaus could heard Lexi outside talking to someone who he assumed would be Matt and Tyler.

"What the hell happened, Forbes?" Alaric asked as he made his way over to the examination bed. Caroline lifted a hand and looked at him.

"Please, not now. I'm already dealing with being sowed back together like a torn piece of clothing. Kind of like my shirt."

Out of curiosity and temptation, Klaus moved his gaze to her shirt, and sure enough, it was ripped. He could see her bright orange bra through the tear. He smirked but snapped back to attention when she hit him. She pointed a finger accusingly at him.

"Stop it. I know what you're doing, you pervert."

His smirk grew larger as he shrugged it off and went back to her stitches. "I don't know what you're talking about, sweetheart."

Alaric looked somewhat awkward as he watched the exchange, though Elijah was used to his brothers attitude.

"Brother, if you would finish and let us speak to Caroline as soon as possible, it would be greatly appreciated."

"And while you're at it, go settle whatever it is you have to settle with Lockwood and get it over with. I'm sick of you boys acting like you're in a teen drama." Alaric added.

Klaus furrowed his brows at them and shook his head. "No," he scoffed, "I'll finish her stitches, but I'm not leaving this room."

"Mikaelson." Alaric said with a tone of warning.

Klaus just glared back at him. "I'm not leaving, mate."

"Just let him stay. It's not like he's going to leave, anyway." Caroline groaned. "It's about the Salvatore's, so he's bound to hear about it since it's his assignment as well."

Elijah quirked a brow in question at her. "The Salvatore's did this to you?"

She nodded and sat up, Klaus quickly at her aid to help her before he set back to finishing her stitches. "They broke into my house and found my files on them. Damon Salvatore was in my bedroom where I usually keep my work and he was on the phone talking to someone, then his brother Stefan found me and then it all went by so quickly. He pinned me to the wall, I got away, and then Damon chased me into the kitchen. I tried to stab him with a knife but he knocked it out of my hand, so I spat on him and –"

"You spat on him?" Klaus interrupted, admittedly amused by that fact, and finished her stitches.

She gave him a look that said to wipe the smirk off his face. "Yes, I spat on him with my blood. Anyway, then I hit him over the head with a frying pan –"

"Like that children's film about the blonde girl with the long hair?"

"Her name's Rapunzel, and yes, I guess you could say like that. Anyway, as I was saying, Stefan came and was going to shoot me in the head with my own gun, but I found the knife and stabbed him in the leg with it. Then I ruined a perfectly good pair of heels by kicking Damon several times and then I came here."

Klaus stayed quiet as Elijah and Alaric kept throwing questions Caroline's way, taking in the whole story of what had happened to her not even two hours ago. She went through all of that, and yet here she was, recounting the terror she had to endure while getting medical attention and being questioned about what had happened. How could he have doubted her as a Lieutenant when she was so strong? Yes, she had arrived at the department in a state of shock and anxiety, but now she sat there and spoke as if she was having a typical every day conversation.

"And that's not all." Caroline said as she looked between all three of them. "I don't think the Salvatore's are our biggest problem. When Damon was on the phone, he sounded like he was talking to someone important, like a leader or something. He was talking to someone named Enzo."

"Did he mention a surname?" Elijah asked.

Caroline shook her head. "No, but he did mention something about a warehouse and New Orleans. I think that's where they're working from. A warehouse in New Orleans. He didn't mention an address, but it's the best lead we've got so far."

Alaric and Elijah shared a look before they turned back to her. "Do you have any idea why they broke into your house?"

"I have no idea," she said with a shrug, "Probably to get as much information as they could."

Something dawned on Klaus in that moment. "How did they know where you lived, though? They couldn't have just picked a house and gotten it right."

Caroline looked at him and bit her lip before sighing. "I don't know. Maybe they followed me back from work? But I honestly don't remember anyone following me home the past few weeks."

It didn't seem right to Klaus, but he didn't say that out loud yet. He pondered it for a while, but he still felt like it didn't quite fit what was going on.

"Well," Elijah said, "I think we need to call it a night. Caroline needs to get some rest and we can continue this conversation tomorrow. Matt and Tyler have night duty tonight, so they'll be here in case there's any more issues. Niklaus, I'm relying on you to make sure she gets somewhere safe."

Alaric nodded in agreement. "I agree. I'm calling a meeting first thing tomorrow morning. As for you, Forbes, don't bother coming in tomorrow. You need to rest after what happened tonight. I'll see the rest of you tomorrow." He said and both he and Elijah walked out.

Klaus went over to the sink and filled a cup of water for Caroline, knowing it would help with the dizziness, and sat down on the examination bed next to her. She gave him a grateful smile and leaned back against the wall. She downed the water and released a sigh.

"Well, tonight sure was eventful. It's not every day you have a brawl with criminals in your kitchen and nearly get shot in the face."

"You can't go back there tonight Caroline." Klaus said with a frown on his face. He couldn't let her go back to that house in the state that she was in right after it had been broken into. It wasn't safe, and he was sure she wouldn't feel safe there either. "I won't let you."

She turned to look at him. Her eyes were so big and blue, they stood out like jewels against her soft, creamy skin, and her blonde curls framed her face perfectly. She'd been through Hell tonight and yet she still managed to look so beautiful.

He snapped back to reality at the sound of her clicking her fingers in front of his face. "Hello? I asked you a question."

He furrowed his brow in confusion. "You did? Of course you did, love. Now, what was it again?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "I said what do you suppose I do, then? Since you won't even let me go back to my own house."

He thought about it for a moment and stood up from the bed. "You can come stay with me."

She laughed. "Yeah right. I'm not falling for that trap so easily, Klaus. You aren't making me yours tonight."

"I won't. Not tonight, anyway." He said with a smirk which just got him another classic Caroline Forbes eye roll, though he could see the blush in her cheeks.

"Keep dreaming, Klaus, because it's not going to happen."

"It will one day, love. But in all seriousness, you are welcome to stay at my place. And if it makes you feel any better, I'll sleep on the couch." He didn't want to. He'd much rather share a bed with Caroline and make her his, but he knew that wasn't going to happen tonight after what had happened. That, and she obviously wasn't ready to admit any kind of feelings for him. He could wait, though. It was only a matter of time…

"What? You don't have a guest room or anything?" she asked.

He did, but his guest room had been turned into his studio. He needed somewhere to keep his artworks, and he sure as hell didn't want her going in there when some of his work revolved around her. It was too personal to be shared with anyone.

"No. Not anymore. It's just become a storage room for everything that I couldn't find a spot to put in. Like I said, you can have my room and I'll sleep in the lounge room."

She looked down at the ground before looking back at him. "Thank you, Klaus. For everything tonight. Really, I mean it."

His trademark smirk reappeared on his face. "No thanks necessary, sweetheart. It's my pleasure."

* * *

They walked to the parking lot and Klaus led Caroline over to his car. He opened the passenger door for her and raised a brow when he saw her gawking at the car.

"Something wrong, love?"

"Your car. You have a Chevvy Impala."

He raised a brow and nodded slowly. "Yes, it's a Chevvy Impala."

"So you drive around Mystic Falls in a Chevvy like you're Dean Winchester and didn't tell me?" she said shocked and gesture largely to the car.

"Love, I have no idea who that is."

"He's from a TV series called _Supernatural_. Don't worry about it."

Klaus smirked at her. He liked listening to her ramble on about the things she liked, purely because it showed an adorable side to her and he loved listening to her honey-sweet voice.

"Well why don't you tell me about it on the way home, sweetheart?"

Caroline pretended to think. "Hmm, I'd rather let you watch the show yourself. I don't particularly like spoiling things for people." She said with a smirk and got in the car. Klaus shut the door behind her and walked around the car to the driver's side. He started the car and headed out of the car park and onto the street.

"So how's was your girls night?" he asked, purely just to hear her voice again.

Caroline looked at him with a quizzical look. "How did you know about that?"

"I overheard Katerina saying something about it at work."

"Why do you call Katherine Katerina?" she asked, her eyes still on him.

Klaus smirked at the question as he drove. "Because Katerina is her name, sweetheart. Katerina Petrova. She prefers Katherine Pierce, though Elijah and myself still call her Katerina."

"Why did she change it?"

Klaus shrugged. "She lived in Bulgaria until she turned twenty. New place, fresh start. Anyway," Klaus said, changing the subject back to the original one, "Your evening with the girls. How was it? Before the attack, I mean."

Caroline turned her gaze back to the road in front of her. "It was alright. I was a bit tired. But I found out that shy, quiet Elena has a boyfriend. Can you believe that?"

No, he certainly couldn't believe that. Even Klaus was surprised by that news, though he didn't show the extent of how surprised he was. "Are you jealous, love?" he said with a hint of a smirk.

Caroline scoffed and it only made his smirk grow. "No. I'm just surprised."

"Well, what's the fella's name?"

"She said it's Damian. She was so awkward when she told me. Usually she's just shy, but she was seriously awkward. She was acting like she was telling me about her sex life." Caroline said with a shake of her head. Klaus smirked and Caroline daggered her eyes at him. "Don't even make a comment on that. I know you're dying to."

"I don't know what you're talking about, love."

* * *

After about ten minutes, they pulled up in the driveway of a two-story sandstone house. Klaus turned the car off and got out, watching as Caroline stared up at the house with wide eyes. Klaus walked around the car to her and put a hand on the small of her back, leading her over to the front door. He felt her tense up at his touch then relax her body after a moment. He could tell he had more of an effect on her than she cared to admit, and he couldn't help but feel smug about it. He unlocked the door and led her inside.

"Such a big house for one person to live in." she said as she looked around. "It's bigger than mine."

"Well now there's two people." He pointed out and she raised a brow. "Temporarily of course, love." He gestured to the stairs and started walking, Caroline following close behind him. They made their way to his room and he leaned against the doorframe. He looked to Caroline and watched her look around the room, taking it all in. He wanted to throw her in his bed with him right there in that moment, but he resisted the temptation. Right now wasn't the right time after her having gone through what she did that night and because she hadn't admitted her _so very obvious_ attraction to him yet.

"Make yourself at home." He said and looked her up and down none too discreetly. "Of course I'd love to join you, but I'm willing to wait just for you, sweetheart." He sneered and she rolled her eyes as she pushed past him.

"Whatever, Klaus. Don't try anything funny tonight or I'll hit _you_ with a frying pan this time."

"No need, love. If you need me, you know where I am."

"I know," she said and turned to face him, biting her lip before standing up straight. Klaus noticed she always did that when she felt she needed a boost of confidence or wanted to prove a point. He loved it when she tried to be dominant. "Thank you, Klaus. I feel like I can't say it enough, but really, thank you for everything tonight. I don't know how to repay you."

"Well," he started, a smirk appearing on his face, "I can think of a pretty easy way to pay me back."

"No." she dead panned. "You need to wait for that chance."

"So you're admitting we are going to happen eventually."

"No, I'm just saying –"

"Oh, I know what you're implying, love, you just don't want to say it yet." He sneered.

She went to answer him back, and he waited for her response, but she shut her mouth and bit her lip. Klaus smiled triumphantly.

"Goodnight, Klaus." Was all she could get out.

"Goodnight, sweetheart." He replied and shut the door behind him as he left the room with a smirk on his face. _One day, Caroline. One day…_

* * *

**What did you all think? Let me know in reviews! :) I'll update soon!**

**Celeste xoxo**


	8. Give Me Love

**Hi everyone! I'm back with another chapter. I honestly cannot say how much I appreciate all of your amazing and positive reviews! You guys are the reason I keep updating this story and make me wan to continue it. Thank you so much for sticking with me through this story; I've absolutely loved writing it for you all. I really enjoyed writing this chapter (It has a lot of Klaroline in it and even I gave myself feels just writing it! haha) and I hope you love it just as much as I do! And yes, I chose the title of this chapter to be _Give Me Love_ because that's the Ed Sheeran song that was playing when Klaus and Caroline danced at the Mikaelson Ball in season 3 (My all time fave episode so far of TVD! *cue Klaroline feels*). Without further ado, here is chapter 7: _Give Me Love._**

* * *

_Caroline ran through the hallway as fast as she could and bolted down the stairs, only to miss a step and tumble down the rest of the way, landing like a rag doll at the bottom. She rolled onto her back and propped herself up on her elbows, and it was enough to see Stefan make it to the bottom of the stairs and stand over her with her gun in hand. He raised it and aimed it for the middle of her forehead._

"_I'm sorry Miss Forbes, but I can't afford to leave any witnesses alive."_

_And he pulled the trigger._

Caroline's eyes flew open as she sat bolt upright in a panicked state. Her ragged breathing began to slow down and her body relaxed when she realised it was a dream. "It was just a nightmare, Caroline. It was just a nightmare." She told herself and rubbed her eyes. She reached over to the side table to check the time on her phone and saw it was twenty past six in the morning. She wanted to sleep, and she knew Alaric had told her to take the day off, but she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep – not after that nightmare.

She looked around the room and her eyes landed on her ruined clothes. She'd slept in her bra and underwear, not wanting to crease her clothes because she knew she had to wear them again the next day, but they were in shreds anyway. She frowned as she crawled out of the bed to go examine the overall destruction of her only attire. Her jeans were in better condition than her top, the jeans only having torn at the knees. Her yellow silk top, however, was ripped around the bust and had blood stains on it. She put her jeans on, but opted to try to find a different top to wear. Caroline bit her lip as her gaze drifted over to Klaus' wardrobe. Surely he wouldn't mind if she used one of his shirts…

Caroline headed downstairs after throwing on the smallest shirt she could find – which still ended up being rather large – and looked for her gun. She felt a sense of security when she had it on her, being so used to it hanging off her belt at her waist, and it felt odd not having it on her. She remembered Klaus taking it from her last night and putting it in his jacket pocket, so she went to search the lounge room where he told her he would be.

Sure enough, she found the jacket on the coffee table, but as she walked into the lounge room to retrieve her gun, she stopped in her tracks when she saw Klaus asleep on the couch next to it in just his boxers.

She bit her lip, trying to not make any noise, all the while trying to turn her gaze away from him, but unable to. He wasn't overly muscular and he wasn't under-toned either, but you could tell he was strong. She'd always thought he looked hot in a police uniform, but he looked even better half naked. Maybe she should have stayed in her underwear…

_No_, she mentally scolded herself, _don't even think about it!_ She forced herself to look away and focus on retrieving her gun again when the floorboards under her creaked and he stirred on the couch. She bit her lip and reached over for the jacket, grabbing it, only for the weight of the gun to make a _clunk_ noise against the table and wake him up.

His blue eyes opened and landed on her, and the sleepiness that he was still feeling made his voice sound husky. "What on Earth are you doing, Caroline? The sun isn't even up yet."

She opened her mouth to speak a few times, but struggled to get words out, still distracted by him. "I, ah, I was looking for my gun."

"At six-twenty a.m.?"

"Yes."

"And you need it why?"

She didn't know whether to be completely honest or not, knowing that she'd probably sound like a child with her reason why. She sighed.

"Because I feel safer knowing I have it on me and because I had a dream about the break in. A very vivid one, mind you. I died in this one, so I intend on feeling like I have the upper hand in real life."

Klaus yawned as he sat up. "Fair enough. But rest assured, love, you're safe with me around."

Klaus stretched and Caroline had to keep herself from gawking at him when the stretch made his muscles flex. Klaus raised a brow at her and she looked away. She pulled her gun out of his jacket pocket and tossed the jacket at him.

"Put some clothes on, please."

"Am I distracting you, sweetheart?" he said with a smirk.

"No," she said, clearly flustered, "You're annoying me now."

An amused smile crossed his face and he tossed his jacket onto the couch and stood up. "Well I wasn't going to sleep in my work clothes. Besides, you're the one wearing my shirt." He pointed out and gestured to her. She felt herself blush.

"Please just go put something on."

"Okay, okay. I'll go now."

"Thank you." She said with a sigh and watched him as he left the room to go upstairs. Once he turned the corner, she already missed looking at him. She made sure the safety on her gun was switched on and she put it in her jeans pocket, the handle sticking out. She waited in the lounge room for a few minutes until Klaus came back down wearing a pair of denim jeans and a white V-neck shirt.

"Since you are so keen to be awake at this time of the morning, we might as well have breakfast."

"Right, because who doesn't have breakfast at six-thity in the morning?"

"Well I don't know about you, but at this time of morning I prefer to be sleeping." Klaus said and walked out of the room to what Caroline supposed was the kitchen. Caroline stood at the island bench and leaned against it as she watched him turn the coffee machine on.

"Want a coffee?" he asked as he got a cup out for himself. Caroline nodded and he took another one out for her.

"There's cereal in the pantry if you want, or there's bread for toast, but if you're feeling like something else, there's some bacon and eggs I can cook up in the fridge."

Caroline raised a brow. "You cook?" she blurted out then realised the stupidity behind the question. It only made Klaus chuckle.

"I don't think I'd be able to live by myself if I couldn't cook, sweetheart. I'm not a big fan of take-out."

"Well you obviously don't eat it from what I've seen." She said and felt her cheeks go red. She looked down at the counter, knowing that if she looked up, she'd see the smirk on his face.

"And you're the one who called me a pervert yesterday."

"Well now we're even."

"I don't play to get even, love." He said and she looked up from the counter to him again. His fierce blue eyes were on her and his expression was hard to read. She could tell he was thinking, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was. She sucked in a breath and broke her gaze away from his.

"I'll just go with cereal, thanks."

From the corner of her eyes, she saw the tension leave his body and relax. Was he just as affected by her as she was of him? She didn't know, and she didn't know yet whether she wanted to find out or not.

"You can pick whatever you want from the pantry. The milk is on the bottom shelf of the fridge." He said and turned back to the coffee machine.

She watched him for a moment longer before going over to the pantry and opening it up. She opted for cornflakes and took the milk out of the fridge, then started looking for a bowl to put it in.

"Hey, where are the –"

"The cupboard next to the fridge."

She went silent for a moment. "Right, okay. Thanks." She said somewhat awkwardly and opened the cupboard. Sure enough, the bowls were there. She took one from the cupboard and poured her cereal and milk before taking a seat at the island counter. A few moments later Klaus put down her cup of coffee in front of her and he leaned back against the bench to drink his. Caroline looked at him, then let her eyes wander around the kitchen. She bit her lip and pushed around her cornflakes in the bowl. She suddenly didn't have much of an appetite.

"I thought you were old enough to know that you shouldn't play with your food." Klaus said, snapping Caroline out of her reverie.

"I don't and I'm not." she said defensively. "I was just thinking."

"About what?" he said, bringing his coffee cup to his mouth.

She looked at him for a moment, deciding whether to tell him or not. She didn't think it would be a smart idea to finally admit to him that she was attracted to him. He would probably try to take advantage of that if he knew, but she couldn't hold it back forever. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, his phone rang and he picked it up from the bench and answer it.

"What is it?" he spoke into the phone.

Caroline looked at him disgusted. She'd never answer the phone like that. It sounded completely disrespectful, even for Klaus, but when she heard the name, she understood why. He usually spoke to his brothers like that.

"No, Elijah, she hasn't gone in today… I know that because she's here… Yes Elijah, she stayed here… No… Brother, you wound me with such accusations… No, I haven't done such a thing… yet. I emphasize the '_yet_'," he said and turned to Caroline with a smirk. Caroline groaned, having a good guess at what they were talking about. "Relax brother," he said and furrowed his brow at whatever Elijah was saying, then smirked, "Okay, okay. No problem. Any excuse to spend some time with this one. Alright, later." He said and hung up.

Caroline raised a brow. "_Yet_? Seriously?"

Klaus smirked and pressed his palms down on the counter, leaning over it towards her. "Yes, I said '_yet_'. It's going to happen sooner or later, sweetheart."

She glared at him briefly. "It didn't happen last night, it's not happening today, and it's not going to happen any other day."

His smirk turned into a frown before it reappeared again. "I like a challenge, sweetheart. That's one of the things I like most about you. Anyway," he said, quickly finished his coffee then put the cup in the dishwasher, "Elijah and Alaric want me to keep an eye on you, so you're stuck with me whether you like it or not."

Caroline didn't know whether to be happy or pissed off. She already hated the fact that Alaric wouldn't let her go into work today, and now they thought she needed a babysitter. She didn't need to be taken care of.

"What? So you're going to keep me under house arrest or something?"

"Something along those lines. I'd more or less describe it as not letting you out of my sight. You can leave the house, but Alaric and Elijah want me to go with you."

Her jaw dropped. "What? So now I need a bodyguard according to them? I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

"Not after last night, you're not. Besides, you were obviously purposely targeted because they knew you are leading the case. And you can't exactly live in your house at the moment because it's currently a crime scene."

"So I'm stuck living here with you for now?"

He put his hands in his jeans pockets. "Seems like it. There's no need to act like it's the end of the world. I know you like my company more than you care to admit, love. It shows through your denial."

She put her elbow on the bench and rested her chin on her hand. "Fine, since I obviously don't have a choice. But can I at least go and get some of my clothes from home because I don't plan on living in the same jeans and underwear for however long I'm stuck here."

"Or you could wear nothing at all? I'm all for that option." He said with a smirk.

"Be careful. I've still got my gun." She dead panned.

* * *

Once they pulled up at her house, they saw the property had been marked off for investigation with the black and yellow tape. They ducked under the tape and walked inside as passers-by watched on. Caroline hugged her arms around herself, more so to hide the embarrassment of wearing Klaus' shirt and looking like she just came out of his bed after a night together rather than the fact that she was a Lieutenant and still managed to be a victim of a break in.

Once inside, she headed for the stairs and passed the kitchen as quickly as possible, not wanting to look in there just yet. As she reached the stairs, she heard Tyler call out her name.

"Hey Care." He said and stopped in front of her. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine, but thanks for the concern." She said and hugged her arms around herself tighter. Tyler looked her up and down and frowned when he saw the clothes she was wearing.

"Weren't you wearing a yellow top? Whose shirt is that?"

She internally groaned, not wanting to have this conversation with anyone. "Well my shirt was –"

"That would be mine." Klaus said from behind Tyler and Tyler turned around to look between the two of them. Caroline looked anywhere but at them, really just wanting to bolt right then and there.

"Did you two… you didn't. Did you…?"

"Yes, mate, and it was bloody fantastic."

"Klaus!" Caroline said, her voice exasperated. "Nothing happened. I just didn't want to walk around in a blood-coated shirt with rips in it."

"I wouldn't have minded, love."

"Would you just shut up and leave her alone already?" Tyler snapped at Klaus. Klaus just raised a brow and took a step towards Tyler, easily showing he was more dominant than him.

"I'd be careful if I were you, mate." He said coolly.

Caroline rolled her eyes at the two of them and grab Klaus by the arm. "For goodness sake, let's just get what we have to and go. I don't exactly want to be here right now." She said and started pulling him upstairs with her. Tyler eyed the two of them suspiciously before heading back into the kitchen. Once Caroline and Klaus were in her room, she shut the door and turned to him.

"Why do you always have to prove you're the alpha male?"

"I don't need to prove anything, love. I _am_ the alpha male."

She pinched the bridge of her nose and turned to her wardrobe. "Whatever, I don't have time for this." She said and started pulling garments out and tossing them onto her bed. She grabbed a few pairs of shoes, then went into the ensuite bathroom to grab her toiletries. She had no clue how long it would be until she could come back to her own house, so she decided to pack a decent amount of clothing. She walked back into her room, completely ignoring Klaus as he leaned against the wall watching her with his arms crossed. She headed over to her drawer and started pulling out underwear to pack into her duffle bag.

"Ah, you're a lace girl, aren't you?" he said as soon as she pulled out a black lacy bra. She could practically see the smirk on his face without even having to look at him.

"You're commentary is most definitely _not_ appreciated, nor is it necessary."

"Maybe not, though it's rather entertaining."

She shut the drawer and turned to look at him. "No, it's not. It might be for you, but it's not for me." She said, starting to feel a little self-conscious, knowing that he was getting under her skin and that he knew it too. She shoved the underwear and bras into her bag and zipped it up and threw it over her shoulder. "Let's just get going, okay?"

Klaus shrugged and held the door open for her. They walked downstairs and past the kitchen, Caroline daring herself to take a look at the night that terrified her, and locked eyes with Tyler. Tyler looked at her for a moment before glaring at Klaus, but then was interrupted by Matt trying to get him to focus back on their investigation.

* * *

Once they got back to his house, Klaus had told Caroline that he needed to leave the house for a bit to drop past the department to speak with Alaric, and told her to make herself at home. She dropped her duffle bag in his room – she told him that she'd be more than happy to stay in the guest room even though it was turned into a storage space, but he had said no and that she could stay in his room again that night. She grabbed a fresh pair of clothes – a crème top that sat just off her shoulders and hung loosely around her body and a pair of dark jeans – and went to the bathroom to shower. The bathroom was fairly simple yet elegant. The floor was a grey polished marble along with the bench where the sink was. The walls were made up of large white tiles with a large mirror above the sink. The shower was large enough to fit two people comfortably in there at once, and the shower doors were made of frosted glass. Caroline's face took on a look of confusion as she took it all in. She didn't imagine a guy living in a place like this house, especially Klaus.

Once she had cleaned herself up and washed her hair, she went for a wander around the house, curious to see what the rest of it was like. She walked past the stairs further into the back of the house and, to her surprise, found a library room.

She walked around the edges of the library slowly, brushing her fingers along the spines of the books as she went. A lot of them were on history, artists and she also found the occasional book on mythology. She came across a photo album and bit her lip. She knew she should probably leave that one alone, but her curiosity got the better of her. She picked it up off the shelf and flicked through the pages. There were pictures of his family, starting from over a decade ago when he was younger. Judging by the look of it, it was something that Rebekah would have put together. Caroline wouldn't have been surprised if Rebekah had forced each of her siblings to have an album each. As she flicked through the first few pages of the book and looked at the earlier photos, she kept finding pictures of Klaus with all of his siblings. She could identify Elijah, Kol, Rebekah, an older one which she assumed was Finn (knowing that he was the oldest of them all), and Klaus – except for the youngest one in the picture. She'd always thought Rebekah was the youngest sibling, but there in the photo in front of them all was a young boy. She looked back and saw that there were more photos with him in it, but when she looked further into the book, he wasn't in them. Caroline went back to the first image she spotted him in and read the names at the bottom that were written there: _Finn, Elijah, Niklaus, Kol, Rebekah and Henrik._

Caroline shut the book and put it back, starting to feel way too intrusive, and headed out of the library. She had no right to go snooping through his stuff, but as she went upstairs and past a room she hadn't been in yet, she let her curiosity take over again and turned the door handle.

As soon as she opened the door, the smell of paint filled her nose. Inside was a bed to the side of the room that looked like it hadn't been slept in for quite some time. The rest of the room was dominated by easels and canvases, tables that had an array of different paints and brushes and art tools, paintings hung all over the walls, and a shelf that was filled with sketch books. Caroline remembered Klaus telling her that the guest room had been turned into a space for everything he needed to store away and was insistent that he would much rather her use his room and he sleep on the couch than her use the guest room, and now she knew why. Rebekah had mentioned it once before too.

It was his studio.

Caroline stepped inside and looked over all the paintings, feeling absolutely speechless. They were an array of different colours – mixes of blue and green, red and black, earthy browns and greys. The paintings were more or less abstract… no, that wasn't the word. Post-Modern? If she remembered clearly enough from years ago when she was back in art class at school. All she could tell was that she was completely awe-struck by them. The paint was thick, allowing the brush strokes to be thick and mix with the other colours on the canvas. She walked around the room taking it all in until her eyes fell on the shelf of books.

There was one book already with the cover open and she turned the pages carefully as she looked through it. There were sketches of landscapes, people, plants, but she stopped when she turned the page to find a sketch of her. It was a portrait that ended just below her shoulders, and a few strands of her hair were being blown in her face. She was smiling in the picture, as if she was trying to not laugh at something. The only colour on the page was her eyes. They were coloured a brilliant blue, brighter than she thought her eyes could ever be. She turned the page to find another sketch of her, this time with her hair tied back and a determined look on her face. She kept turning the pages, finding more sketches of her, and ran a hand through her hair, not sure what to think. She felt embarrassed, feeling her cheeks go red. She certainly felt shocked, too. She didn't realise that she was more than just a game to him. She got the impression that he was just trying to score her because he felt like it, but now she doubted her theory. Did his feelings for her run deeper than she thought? She felt her heart race at the possibility of it, but still mentally scolded herself for thinking so, not wanting to accidently trick herself into believing something that might not be true.

"What are you doing in here?"

She gasped and spun around to face him, pressing her back against the book shelf. _Shiiit, he's going to be pissed!_ She opened her mouth a few times to speak but no words came out when he walked right up to her and looked down at her. He was only centimetres away from her, his nose almost touching hers. She shrunk back against the shelf even further.

"What are you doing in here, Caroline." He repeated.

"I – I was bored so I looked around and found this room." She said, fumbling for words.

"I told you not to come in here." He said, though she could easily tell that he was trying to with-hold how angry he truly was.

"Well I didn't know it was this room. You just said the guest room is full of stuff that needs somewhere to be stored. You never said that there was a rule against coming in here."

His eyes burned into hers for a moment before he reached around her and shut the sketch book she was looking through, picking it up and holding it between them.

"And yet you still decided to snoop around in my business."

"Oh? And it's not my business that you've been drawing me?"

Klaus set his jaw and furrowed his brow. Caroline could feel the tension in the room.

"It doesn't give you the right to go looking through my things. Believe it or not, my art is personal and private. Kind of like how you girls keep journals. I paint and sketch. Now back to what's important; I don't want to see anyone in here again. Do you understand?"

Caroline narrowed her eyes at him. He was talking to her like she was a child. She wasn't a child. She was twenty-four for crying out loud.

"You can't tell me what to do. I'm not a little girl. I'm a grown woman. So stop acting like a child and be a man, for shits sake." She said and his eyes hardened. "And why do you lock away your work, anyway? Display it in your house. It's not going to do any good sitting around in here."

"Then there's no point in having a studio, Caroline." He said dimly before grabbing her by the wrist and walking her out of the room. She turned around to face him before they could go any further.

"Then at least tell me why you draw me."

"No. That's not going to happen."

"Tell me and I swear I won't come back in here." She said quickly, feeling a desperate need to know why. She needed her theories to be confirmed true or false. He stayed quiet as he thought about his options and his grip loosened around her wrist. His eyes softened as he looked at her, the hardness that was in them a few moments ago gone and now replaced with something else that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"I fancy you." He finally said and her eyes widened slightly from surprise. "Is that so hard to believe?"

She blinked a few times, trying to get over her moment of shock. "Why?"

"You're beautiful, strong, full of light. I enjoy you." He said and she was glad to see his usual smile reappear on his face. He took a step toward her, but thought better about it and stopped himself. She felt her cheeks turn red and look down at her feet for a moment before looking back at him.

"I'm sorry I came in here. It won't happened again."

He stood there for a moment biting his lip then nodded. "Okay, love." He said then gestured to the door. She stepped out of the room, Klaus behind her and shut the door after himself. "If you'll excuse me, I've got work I need to do. If you need me, I'll be in the study." He said and took off down the hall after looking at her one more time.

Caroline watched him leave then went into the bedroom to grab her phone before heading down to the library. She couldn't call Rebekah since she was his sister, and she couldn't call Bonnie because she wouldn't listen to any conversation that had to do with her least favourite person. Caroline sure as hell wasn't going to call Elena since she seemed like the kind of girl who couldn't hold a conversation. She dialled the number of the only person she could think of that would listen and put the phone to her ear.

"I'm going to take a stab in the dark and say that this phone call is going to be about you staying at a certain, not to mention _sexy_, British man's house?" Katherine said as soon as she answered the phone.

Caroline nodded even though Katherine couldn't see her. "Something along those lines, yes." She said and lowered her voice in case Klaus could hear her from upstairs. "You're not going to believe what I just found out."

* * *

**So what did you all think? Did you love it as much as I did writing it? Let me know who your feels are going now in reviews haha! You know I love you all, but I think I'm starting to turn into a feels breaker like Cassie Clare and John Green haha.**

**Celeste xoxo**


	9. The Devil in Disguise

**Hello amazing readers! I've finished another chapter! In a quick summary, this chapter involves a meeting with Caroline and her sergeants, a mission and a little something that I shall not spoil at the end of it (I want you to be surprised when you read it and I don't want to say any major spoilers!). Without any further ado, here is chapter 8: _The Devil in Disguise._**

* * *

The alarm on Klaus' phone rang at six a.m. the next morning and he rolled onto his stomach to go turn it off, only to remember he was sleeping on the couch and nearly fell off.

"For shit's sake, shut the bloody hell up." He grumble as he finally grabbed the phone and switched the alarm off. He hated early shifts, but it was better than a night shift. Those all-nighters were worse than 7 a.m. starts. What made it worse was that it was now the Christmas season, and that's when they were always busiest.

He sat up and rubbed his face with his hands, trying to wake himself up. After a minute to let his eyes adjust to the dark, he got up and headed upstairs to his room to grab his uniform. He knew Caroline was asleep in there, but he didn't bother being quiet, knowing she had the same shift as him.

"Rise and shine, sweetheart. You're back in business today." He said as he walked in and headed straight for the wardrobe. He grabbed his pants and pulled them on, buckling up the belt, all the while trying to make as much noise as he could, but she still didn't move.

"Caroline." He said louder, but she still didn't budge. He resorted to tossing his shirt at her head.

She finally stirred but all he got from her was a muffled "_go away, you douche,_" Caroline not even bothering to remove the shirt he threw at her.

"Seriously, Caroline. We've got work in fifty minutes." he said and walked over to the bed, grabbing his shirt and pulling the blankets off of her. From what he could see in the dark, she was just wearing a pyjama shirt and underwear, but that sight was gone all to quickly for his liking because she grabbed the blankets and pulled them back over her again.

"Don't do that!" she said and slapped his hand away.

"Why? Because you're not wearing pants?"

"Shut up!"

Klaus chuckled and buttoned his shirt up. "Just get up. You're going to make me late."

"Maybe you should be more respectful to your Lieutenant. There's an idea."

He pointed a finger at her with a hint of a smirk on his face. "Watch it, love. You of all people know I have a temper, so hurry up."

"Then get out of here so I can change." She said as she sat up.

Klaus gestured to the room largely. "But sweetheart, you're in my room in my bed after all."

She tossed a pillow at him and glared in his direction. "Get out, Klaus."

"Fine, fine." He said, lifting his hands in front of him and leaving the room.

* * *

Once they were ready and arrived at the department after a thoroughly amusing conversation in the car, Klaus headed for the staff room, leaving Caroline to have a brief talk with Elena at the front desk. Klaus found Jeremy and Kol in the staff room already, giving a nod of acknowledgement to the two of them before making himself a coffee.

"So where's Caroline, Nik?" Kol asked.

Klaus' expression stayed the same, not even bothering to look at his brother as he finished making his coffee. "Out the front talking to Elena about some guy she's dating."

Kol grinned. "Caroline's dating someone? Pity for you, brother."

"No, you bloody idiot. Elena's dating someone."

"Well then I don't care about this conversation because it has no point." Kol said boredly.

Jeremy joined the two of them over at the coffee machine, putting his cup in the dishwasher. "I don't like this Damian guy my sisters with. I mean, I haven't even met the guy yet and she's been with him for about four months now. I don't like it."

Kol and Klaus shared a look. "Well neither would I, mate, but I honestly don't care. I've got other more important things to worry about."

"Like how you're going to seduce our Lieutenant?" Kol sneered.

"Mind your business, Kol."

"Oh please. It's everyone's business now in this department." Katherine said as she strutted in, her dark curls bouncing as she walked. "We all know you've got a thing for her. It isn't hard to see."

Klaus turned to Katherine. "Katerina, I suggest you be quiet."

Kol chuckled. "Oooh we've hit a nerve, have we, brother?"

"Kol, if you don't shut your mouth, the next thing to come out of it will be your teeth."

"I won't tolerate any violence between my team, thank you very much." Caroline said from the doorway. She had her arms crossed over her chest, and boy, did she look hot in that uniform. The cuffs and gun hanging from her belt at her waist only made her look more powerful and strong. Klaus smirked at the sight of her.

She eyed them all before speaking up again. "Alright, let's convene in the seminar room. We've got a mission to discuss."

They followed her down the hall and into the seminar room, the rest of them sitting around the table while she stood out the front with her hands resting on the table. She pushed an A3 sheet of paper into the middle of the table and pointed at the image on it.

"We did a little digging and found the location of the warehouse in New Orleans. It was the only one out of use, so that makes it easier for us to avoid running into people and means that there's a less chance of civilians getting in the way." She said and opened a red marker to draw three circles on the page. "These are the three entrances. The front one on the east side, the back one on the west side, and there is a fire escape on the south side." She said as she pointed at each of them.

"I want all entrances covered, but that's not all. There's a door up on the roof as well. I want someone to cover that entrance, too. If they're going to make any attempt of escape, it will be through there. So one person per door. Do you all follow so far?"

Caroline looked around the table at all of them as they nodded.

"Okay, great. Now here's what I want. I'll take the east entrance, Katherine will take the west, Kol the south, and –"she turned to Klaus and he gave her a devilish smile while she gave him the most sadistic smirk he'd ever seen on a woman, "Klaus will take the entrance on the roof." She said, then added, "If he thinks he can handle it, anyway."

Klaus folded his arms on the table and leaned forward, the grin never leaving his face. "I can handle anything, love."

"Someone please tell me I'm not the only one feeling the sexual tension in the room." Katherine said bluntly as she looked between the two of them. Both Caroline and Klaus turned to Katherine before looking back at each other.

"Yep, I feel it too." Kol interjected. "Back to the mission, anyone?"

Caroline blinked a few times before looking down at the papers again and Klaus leaned back in his chair with his arms folded.

"Right, so what I want to do is easier said than done. There's one level to the warehouse but there is also the basement. I want two of us on each floor at all times; two on the first floor and two in the basement – which I'm sure whatever they're hiding would be in the basement. Klaus and Katherine, I want you two to take the first floor, and Kol and I will take the basement."

Klaus scowled at the directions as he looked at Caroline and gestured to Katherine. "Why am I partnered with Katerina? No offense to you Katerina, but I'd much rather be partnered up with my brother than you."

Katherine rolled her eyes at him and folded her arms. "Oh please, we all know you'd much rather be partnered with Caroline. We all know you want –"

"That's enough!" Caroline said and slammed her hand on the table. Katherine's attention went straight back to Caroline while Klaus glared at her for a moment longer before turning his attention back to Caroline. She wasn't one to get angry and he hadn't seen her like this before. It wasn't anger that he was seeing in her; it was power.

"I don't care what you think about your partners and I don't care who you want to be partnered up with." She said as she glared at the two of them. "My decision is final." They all stayed quiet, and once she knew they weren't going to speak, she continued.

"Now, my instructions are simple. Find out what they're up to and capture them. We need to question them. Just don't kill them, please, and don't get yourselves killed either. If you run into trouble, you know what to do." She passed around sheets of paper. "On here is the plan mapped out clearly in case you need to refresh your memory for anything about the mission. Go read over it. We leave at 11:00."

* * *

Once they'd left Mystic Falls, it took them about four hours to get to New Orleans, Klaus having to endure a painful four hours of driving with Katherine while Caroline and Kol were in the other car in front of them. His irritation grew every minute he had to spend in the damned car with her. Klaus' knuckles turned white as his grip on the steering wheel tightened.

"Katerina, my patience is running thin." He said through clenched teeth.

"What are you going to do about it, Klaus? Caroline won't forgive you if you threaten or hurt me, or you sacrifice the mission."

"I'm trying to drive."

"And your driving skills aren't exactly that fantastic either. You're going over the speed limit."

"No I'm not."

"The speed meter says otherwise."

Klaus hit the steering wheel with one hand. "God damn it, Katerina. Shut the bloody hell up."

"You're angry," Katherine said, feigning innocence, "I don't think Caroline would find that very attractive."

Klaus pressed his lips into a thin line and shook his head. _What did I do to deserve this?_

Finally, to his great pleasure, they pulled over to the side of the road and got out of the car. The warehouse was one block away. They didn't want to park near it or else they'd raise suspicion. Caroline and Kol walked over to them, her hand resting on the handle of her gun.

"Do you all remember what you need to do?" she asked.

They all gave her a nod and they headed down to the warehouse, going to their designated areas. Klaus walked around the perimeter of the old building and found the ladder that led to the roof. He grabbed onto the first rail and shook it to see if it was sturdy, and sure enough, it was. He scaled the ladder to the top as quietly as possible and climbed onto the roof, finding the door there. He looked at his watch, knowing they'd put aside five minutes for him to find the ladder and make it to the top of the building before they ambushed the place. Twenty-eight seconds to go…

He pulled his gun from his belt and watched the seconds tick by on his watch. He didn't want to be stuck with Katherine. He would have preferred Caroline ten times over anyone else. What if they hurt her? The bastards already got her once. What would stop them from doing worse a second time? His expression darkened at the thought, but he forced himself to focus back on the mission. He checked his watch again. Two… One…

He pulled on the door handle, but it was locked from the inside. He raised his gun and shot at the handle, thanking whoever came up with the idea of creating silencers, and the door swung open from the force of the bullet. He made his way downstairs, keeping a lookout both in front of him and behind him to make sure he wasn't being followed. He reached the bottom of the stairs and looked around the corner with his gun raised, but no one was there. He lowered his gun as he looked around the room. He dragged a finger over one of the benches in the room and wiped the dust from his hand on his shirt. Everything was covered in dust and dirt. Nothing in this room had been moved previously.

He headed into the next room, on guard with every step he took, but there was no one in the next room either. The next room was the same, as was the next. He made his way into the next room and raised his gun when he saw something move. He was about to fire when he heard the person speak.

"Relax pretty boy. It's just me."

He lowered his gun and scowled at her. "Don't be so careless, Katerina. I could have blown your head off."

Katherine smirked at him. "But you wouldn't have because then Caro–"

She was cut off by the sound of a gunshot.

The two of them glanced at each other before running down stairs. There was another round of gun shots followed by yells that were male. It sure didn't sound like his brother. It took everything in him to not yell out to them, but he knew they'd all have a better chance of getting out and completing what they came here to do if they had the element of surprise.

As they reached the bottom of the stairs, Klaus felt the moisture in the air from the room and smelt something that was definitely illegal. They each took cover behind a crate when they spotted the two men down the other end of the room aiming their guns at a metal table that had been flipped over. Klaus could see both Kol and Caroline firing around the table back at the Salvatore's, the four of them exchanging fire across the room.

"Oh, for shits sake." Katherine muttered to herself. "Can't anything be done without ammunition flying across the room?"

Klaus scowled at the sight of the two men, and for once, he actually agreed with Katherine on something. He stood up from behind the crate, Katherine in suit, and they aimed their guns at the Salvatore's.

"Drop your weapons. _Now_." He ordered loud enough for everyone in the room to hear above the gun fire. The Salvatore's turned to face them, and one of the men – he assumed it was Stefan – looked around between the two groups, realising they were flanked. The other, Damon, just smirked at Klaus.

"Look here, Stefan. Someone else has decided to join the party. Let's bring out the bourbon." Damon said and turned his gaze towards Katherine, looking her up and down. "Well hello there, gorgeous. What's your name?"

Katherine gave him a sadistic smile. "That's for me to know and you to never, in your little pathetic life, find out. Now drop the guns."

"Well that doesn't seem very fair, does it?" Damon replied. "Not with you four aiming them so heartlessly at us, and especially when Blondie over here go away the other night."

That comment made Klaus' anger flare. "Drop the bloody guns, Salvatore," he snapped, "or I'll make you bleed from head to toe."

"I doubt you would do that. You're a cop. You're trained to try and deal with issues in the most civilized manner possible."

"Then you obviously don't know him as well as we do." Caroline said as she got up from her spot behind the table with Kol, aiming her gun at them.

"I'd be careful what you say." Kol added. "You see, my brother here has a tendency to prove people wrong. If you think he won't shoot, he _will_ shoot."

"What can I say, mate? I've got a lot of hobbies."

Damon looked around the room and his gaze landed in Klaus' general direction where the door was. "And so do I." he said with a smirk before another gun was fired. They all quickly ducked for cover, then noticed the Salvatore's bolting out of the room, but they weren't the ones firing.

"Seriously Damon. Do I need to save yours and your brothers asses every time?" said another male voice with a similar accent to Klaus'. A moment of confusion washed over Klaus as he looked around the corner and fired in the direction of the voices, spotting another man in the doorway as Damon bolted through the door. The bullets missed Damon and the mystery man, but hit Stefan in the shoulder. Klaus fired again at the doorway but the two men made an escape before it hit them.

"Damn it." He said and stood up, going to make a break for it to catch the other two, but remembered Caroline. Katherine was already onto cuffing Stefan's hands behind his back as he struggled to escape from her grip with a wounded shoulder.

"We won't be able to catch them. They're more than likely gone by now." Caroline said as she made her way over to where Stefan was with Kol. Klaus grabbed her by the arm and spun her around to look at him. His face turned to an expression of concern as he looked her up and down.

"Are you alright? Did they get you?" he said as he looked for any sign of her being hurt.

"I'm fine." She said as she settled her eyes on his briefly before going back into business mode. "We'll talk later. Right now we need to get this one back to the department for questioning. We might want to remove the bullet, too."

* * *

The drive back to Mystic Falls passed faster than the drive up there. Before they'd left the warehouse, they'd taken photos of the illegal plants and weapons they'd found in the basement Kol looked through the photos for the majority of the drive back as Klaus drove. He was glad to have been able to trade his original company for his brother rather than Katherine.

Once they pulled up at the department, they got out of the car and walked around the back to where Stefan was locked up and opened the doors. Klaus grabbed him by the arms and dragged him along into the building, all the while Stefan tried to put up a fight to make a run for it. As they walked through the foyer past the front desk, Elena's eyes widened as she watched the commotion.

"Elena, alert Alaric, Elijah and Lexi that we've got Stefan Salvatore." Caroline ordered as the rest of them followed behind.

Klaus dragged him down the hall, the others behind them, all the way down to the questioning room and locked him in there before turning back to the others.

"Well, there's that taken care of. I'll go get Matt. It's his job as a detective to do the questioning." Klaus said and glanced at Caroline one last time before heading down the hall. Klaus poked his head inside the door of the staff room and sure enough, he found Matt, Tyler and Jeremy playing poker at their usual table.

"Donovan. We've got a little friend for you to talk to, mate."

The guys turned to Klaus with a look of surprise.

"Did you catch them?" Jeremy asked.

"One of them. Stefan. The other bastard got away with another guy who we think is Enzo."

Klaus saw Tyler open his mouth to say something and he narrowed his eyes at him. "Don't you even think about commenting on that, mate. I wouldn't say anything if you don't want me to cut out your tongue."

Matt got up and headed down the hallway with Klaus towards the questioning room and found the others still there. Caroline straightened herself up from leaning against the wall and looked at Matt.

"I'll go in with you, Matt."

"In your dreams. He nearly killed you the other night at your house. I'm going in with Donovan." Klaus interjected and Caroline frowned.

"That's exactly why I want to go in. So I can gloat about how I kicked his ass and made it out alive."

"Not a chance. Go do your paperwork or something. I'm not letting you in there." He said and walked in with Matt and locked the door behind him before Caroline could protest.

Klaus turned around with his arms folded and leaned against the door, looking at Stefan. Matt took a seat at the other side of the metal table, sitting back in his chair.

"Okay Stefan Salvatore. We're going to have a little talk." Matt started. Stefan looked form Matt to Klaus and back to Matt again. "Care to explain what you've been doing breaking into people's houses the past few months?" he asked calmly.

Stefan knit his brows together and his expression hardened. "Why would I tell you that?"

"Because if you don't I'll shoot you again, and this time I'll aim for your heart." Klaus cut in and walked over to them, resting his hands on the table. "What are you Salvatore's doing growing illegal crops and a rather large collection of guns?"

"Surely you can figure out the first part for yourself."

"That one is a no-brainer, but I want to hear you say it, mate."

"I'm not talking." Stefan said dryly.

Klaus leaned forward across the table, his eyes narrowed. "Talk or I'll make you."

"Jesus, Mikaelson. Go back over to the door." Matt interrupted and pushed him away. "This is my job, not yours."

"I won't interrupt if you get him to talk."

"I'm not going to talk, but maybe you should ask someone else." Stefan said with a grin that said he was hiding something.

Matt and Klaus exchanged a look before turning back to Stefan.

"What are you talking about?"

"It's always the quiet ones you've got to look out for. No one ever suspects them. It's quite handy, really."

"What are you talking about?" they asked again, more demanding now. Stefan's grin grew.

"Come on, you can work this one out. She's a quiet little thing. Such a beautiful girl, but I'm sure you never even suspected someone so shy and dainty to portray you. After all, she is dating my brother Damon."

While Matt kept throwing questions at Stefan, Klaus fell silent as he tried to work out the puzzle Stefan was throwing at them. Someone they knew was with the other Salvatore? With Damon? Damon? Or…

"Elena?" Klaus said out loud and Stefan's grin practically reached his ears.

"Would you look at that? He actually has brain cells."

"It wasn't that hard to work out, mate. Caroline said Elena told her that her boyfriend's name was Damian. It couldn't have been more obvious."

"Then why didn't you arrest her sooner?" Stefan said and it made Klaus' anger boil. He grabbed Stefan but the front of his shirt and shoved him towards Matt.

"Go lock up the bastard. I'm getting Elena." He said and stormed out of the room. He passed Caroline in the hallways who tried to stop him to talk to him, but he shrugged her off and kept walking – something he thought he'd never do – and made his way to the foyer. He walked behind the front desk to Elena and pushed her up against the wall by the throat.

"Klaus! What the hell are you doing?" Caroline said as she tried to pull him away from Elena.

"She's a traitor, Caroline. She's with the Salvatore's." he glowered with rage.

Elena trembled in his grasp and Klaus felt a sense of satisfaction at the sight of it. _Good._ He wanted her to feel terrified.

"She's the reason they knew we were coming. She's the reason they knew you were leading the assignment. She's the reason why they broke into your house and nearly killed you, Caroline. She doesn't deserve sympathy."

"I – I didn't! I don't know what you're talking about! Let go of me."

He leaned in closer to Elena, their noses nearly touching and glared viciously at her. "Don't lie to me, Elena." He said so calmly it made the girl tremble.

He grabbed his cuffs from his belt and cuffed Elena's hands behind her back before leading her down the hall and into an emergency cell room down the back of the department, leaving a shocked Caroline standing in the foyer.

* * *

**What did you all think? Did you guess earlier on who it was that was alerting the Salvatore's, or were you surprised? Let me know in reviews! I love reading what you guys have to say and talking to you all :) Happy reading!**

**Celeste xoxo**

**P.S. I think if you all love Klaroline as much as I do and have been dying for something to happen between these two in this fanfic, I think you're going to like the next chapter I have planned! :) Hehe**


	10. Rebekah's Decorations

**Hello again! I'm back with yet another chapter. I was feeling a bit creative at 1 a.m. last night and ended up finishing this chapter at around 3 a.m. so hopefully it's alright. I've drafted it several times but hopefully I wasn't too tired to pick up any grammatical errors! I think you guys might like this chapter, I know I loved writing it (A few scenes in particular *wink, wink* haha). I rather enjoyed writing the Caroline and Kol scene (You'll see why haha) Here is chapter 9: _Rebekah's Decorations_**

* * *

Caroline woke up at five a.m. the next morning and couldn't fall back asleep. The discovery of Elena working with the men who broke into her house and nearly killed her was still too fresh for Caroline to deal with and accept. Caroline always thought Elena was so… innocent. She guessed she wasn't after all.

Caroline stayed at Klaus' place again that night, and she was given the all-clear to go back home this afternoon, but she didn't want to. She didn't want to go back to the place that Stefan nearly shot her. It was the one place she felt safe apart from the department, and now she had lost that feeling. Klaus' house had become her safe haven over those few days, but it wasn't the house itself. It was the fact that Klaus was there. Yes, he irritated her sometimes and made her doubt herself occasionally, but she felt a sense of safety when he was around.

Too wide awake to fall asleep again, Caroline climbed out of bed and wrapped a jacket around herself, her pyjama shorts and top not enough to keep her from feeling cold. She left the bedroom and padded quietly around the house so she wouldn't wake Klaus. She made her way through the hallway and passed the studio which, to her surprise, was open. The light poured through the door and she dared herself to sneak a peek, even though she knew it would come with consequences if he found out. As she peered through the doorway, she found Klaus standing in front of an easel painting on a canvas. She watched as he directed the paintbrush around the canvas, the colours mixing together on the painting. She could see each of the short brush strokes that he put on the canvas and could see how they allowed a sense of movement to be seen in the painting itself.

"Do I need to remind you once again that it's not polite to pry in other peoples business?"

Caroline felt her cheeks turn red from embarrassment of being caught and looked down at her feet. "Sorry, I didn't think you were awake and I saw the light on. I couldn't exactly sleep."

He put the brush down and turned to look at her, his expression wavering for a moment from irritation to concern. "Because of Elena?" he guessed and she nodded.

"Partly, yeah. Just another thing to add to the reasons to not like the Salvatore's." she said and wrapped her arms around herself. She watched as Klaus tensed up at the mention of the Salvatore's and he frowned.

"I won't let them hurt you, Caroline. I won't tolerate it."

"I know." She said with a slight nod. "I just… I don't know. I don't feel right going back home just yet. Not after what happened. I was getting over it, then the whole thing with Elena happened and now I don't know what to think. What's to stop Damon and Enzo from breaking into my house again?"

"You don't have to go back yet if you don't want to, love. I'm quite happy for you to stay here, and quite frankly, I've enjoyed having you here."

She searched his face for any sign that he was messing around and teasing her, but she couldn't find any. All she could see was seriousness and genuine concern.

"As much as I don't want to admit it, I've actually liked being here. And," she added hesitantly, "If it's alright with you, I'd like to stay a little longer. Until I come to terms with my house being where I could have nearly died." She said and saw the tension leave his body, only to be replaced by a smile, one that, yes, she will admit was sexy, but wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing so.

"You just made my day, sweetheart, and it's not even five-thirty yet."

She pointed a finger warningly at him. "Don't get too cocky because that's all you're going to get."

* * *

After a couple more hours, they'd gotten ready and headed down to the department for their shift in Klaus' Chevvy. They'd gone passed Caroline's house the night before to allow her to get her Mazda, but there was no point in taking two cars to work when they both had the same shift and could travel in one.

As they walked inside, Caroline took in the abundance of Christmas decorations that were hanging from nearly every surface possible. Caroline was usually the one out of her entire family and friends that was always demanding decorations and hanging them herself for every holiday season and event possible, but this time she was greeted with the surprise of the transformation of the department herself.

"Wow." She said as she smiled, taking it all in. "Whose idea was all this?"

"That would be mine." Rebekah said as she walked into the foyer from the staff room. "I thought this place could do with a little festive cheer."

"This is a little?" Klaus said to his sister as he shook his head. "You've turned the department into a bloody Christmas tree."

"Stop being such a Grinch, Niklaus. Everyone else appreciates my decorating skills and the joys of the holiday season. Just look at Caroline's face. It says it all."

Caroline felt her cheeks go red, but her smile just broadened. "It looks amazing, Bekah."

Rebekah smirked triumphantly and gestured to Caroline as she looked at her brother. "My point is proven."

"Whatever Rebekah." Klaus said and turned to Caroline. "I'll see you later after Elena's interrogation." He said and walked off to the staff room. Caroline sighed and looked around some more.

"It really does look fantastic. I would have done it myself, but my job's more demanding on tracking down criminals rather than bringing out the festive cheer."

"Well someone had to do it. This place needs a bit of colour, anyway." Rebekah said before changing the subject. "So you're moving back into your house tonight, yeah? I heard it's been given the all-clear. It must have been a nightmare living with Niklaus. I know it was a nightmare when we were kids."

Caroline bit her lip, not sure how to answer that, but decided telling the truth was the best option. "Actually, I've chosen to stay at his place a little longer. He told me I could if I wanted, so I said yes."

Rebekah looked at her unblinking for a moment, evidently trying to process the words that just came out of Caroline's mouth. "You two slept together, didn't you?"

Caroline's jaw dropped. "What? No! I was attacked in my own house just last week and you think I slept with your brother? We aren't even sleeping in the same room, Bekah."

Rebekah raised her hands in front of her. "Okay, okay, I believe you. But if he tries anything that you don't want him to, tell him I'll slaughter him."

Caroline laughed lightly and nodded, giving Rebekah the thumbs up. "Okay. I'll let him know."

Rebekah smiled. "Great. I've got to go, so I'll see you later." She quickly gave Caroline a hug and walked outside.

Caroline headed down the hall to her office to put a few folders of work she'd brought from the house into her file drawer, then headed back down the hall. Once she reached she end of the hall, she found Kol blocking her way with a playful smirk on his face.

"Hello beautiful. How has your morning been?"

Caroline rolled her eyes at Kol, too tired from her little sleep to deal with his antics right now. "It's been fine." She said impatiently. He took a step towards her and pushed a loose blonde curl behind her ear. A look of confusion came over her face.

"Relax, Caroline. It's the holiday season. You need to let loose and have a bit of fun."

"I'm working and so should you. You can have fun later, but right now, as your Lieutenant, I'm telling you to go do your job that you were trained to do." She said, the authority showing through her words naturally.

"You're a little snappy this morning. Not to worry; I like pretty little things with sharp tongues." He said and leaned down closer to her. She leaned back away from him, feeling utterly confused until she saw the damn decorations Rebekah decided to hang near Caroline's office.

Caroline ducked away from Kol and reached up to rip down the decoration, looking between the decoration and Kol. "Why the hell would your sister hang mistletoe in the department? I know I'm one that's all for decorations being hung, but I don't want to have to exchange saliva with anyone I work with."

"Well now, gorgeous, you just ruined the fun."

"Someone had to sooner or later."

"You're more than a Lieutenant. You're the bloody fun police, too. Such a pity." He said and walked off down the hall, leaving Caroline there to process what just happened.

After recovering from her moment of shock, Caroline walked into the staff room and found most of the staff in there. She walked up to the table they were playing their game of poker at – which Katherine was providing her commentary on again – and chucked the mistletoe into the centre of the table.

"Matt, as much as the decorations are appreciated, you really need to tell your girlfriend that she should have left the mistletoe out of the department. I almost got a taste of Kol because of it."

Matt and Katherine burst out laughing at Caroline's complaint, Matt almost falling out of his chair, but Klaus and Tyler didn't look too pleased. Tyler was watching the others with distaste while Klaus glared across the room with an angry expression on his face before turning to look at her.

"My brother tried to kiss you?"

"No, he tried to push me down the stairs." She said sarcastically. "Yes, he tried to kiss me. Hence why I'm complaining about the mistletoe. Thank god I saw it and took it down before anything happened. Rebekah hung it in the hallway near my office."

"Is there anymore around the place?"

Caroline shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. That's the only one I've found so far, but I'm going to keep an eye out for the rest of the day. I will not be trapped under those things. I refuse to be a victim."

Klaus raised a brow. "Well now that's a little disappointing, love."

Caroline put a hand on her hip and gestured between the two of them. "If you ever want us to happen, it's going to take a lot more than a holiday decoration. I'm not easily persuaded." She reminded him and his typical smirk reappeared.

"I know, sweetheart. Like I said before, I like a challenge."

* * *

After leaving the staff room and playing a game of 'Spot and Avoid the Mistletoe', Caroline headed down to the interrogation room to question Elena with Tyler. Caroline noticed Tyler was in a bit of a bad mood as per usual and didn't bother asking, guessing it had something to do with another tiff he and Klaus would have had. Those two had never really gotten along and their constant bickering had started to annoy her She was sure everyone else felt the same.

They walked inside the interrogation room and sure enough, there was Elena, sitting in the metal chair with hand cuffs around her wrists, looking at them with doe eyes. Caroline couldn't help but feel like Elena was out of place in those hand cuffs, and she wanted to believe that she didn't have anything to do with it, but the evidence was all there.

Tyler sat down in the chair opposite Elena and Caroline went and stood by the door with her arms folded, supervising the interrogation. The cameras and microphones in the interrogation room were on, recording every sound and movement that happened in the room from the moment Elena stepped inside.

"Elena, we've spoken to Stefan a few times now and he has not once denied that you had a part in assisting them. I want you to tell me now yourself whether this is true or not. And don't lie, because we know the truth. We just want to hear it from you."

Elena looked down at the table silently and her gaze stayed there, obviously not wanting to look at them.

"Yes. Yes I did." She said quietly.

"Are you currently in a relationship with Damon Salvatore?"

"I don't see how that's important." She replied, but Tyler just repeated his question.

"Are you currently in a relationship with Damon Salvatore?" he said more sternly.

"Yes. I knew I couldn't tell anyone, though, or else this would happen." She said and gestured around the room as much as she could with her cuffed wrists.

"So that's why you used a fake name for him?" Tyler asked and Elena nodded. "Well if I was you, I would have chosen one that didn't sound anything like his real name. Using Damian for a guy named Damon is practically asking to be caught. Now, next question: Did you know of his crimes before you started dating him?"

"No. I've been dating him for four months now. He didn't start any of this stuff until a month after we started seeing each other."

"But you were aware of his criminal acts?"

"Yes." She said shamefully.

It hurt Caroline to hear it, but she reminded herself that this was the girl who allowed her boyfriend to harm her and threaten her life, break into her house, and break so many laws. She didn't deserve sympathy.

"Elena, can you tell us anything to do with what Damon, Stefan and Enzo are doing?"

Elena looked up from the table, briefly looking at Caroline with a sad look before focussing her gaze on Tyler.

"Well, a few months ago, Damon found this friend of his from when he was in his teens named Enzo, and they started catching up a lot. Stefan after a while had gotten into joining them for their catch ups, too. Apparently Enzo had his hands on some illegal plants – marijuana plants, I'm guessing – believe me, I don't approve of it at all, and he somehow got them into dealing with him. Enzo had a lot of connections and he made them part of those connections, too. He apparently has this place full of drugs and that's not all. Apparently he sells weaponry, too, like guns and knives and such to other criminals. That's all I know about it. I promise."

Tyler and Caroline shared a look before Tyler continued.

"Can you tell me the address for where Enzo is?"

Elena looked between both Caroline and Tyler, debating what she should say. After a long moment, she sighed. "4620 Walnut Street."

Caroline was taken by surprise. "What? Here in Mystic Falls?" she asked and Elena nodded.

"Do you know why there have been killings and break-ins, Elena?" Tyler continued.

Caroline saw Elena swallow nervously before she answered the question. "They were people that had bought drugs off of them but hadn't paid for them yet. They left them unharmed if they paid for them, but some of them put up a fight when they came into their houses and others moved location, but they always ended up finding them and sometimes killed them."

Caroline shook her head in disbelief at what she was hearing. "How could you date someone like that? He's awful, mental. He's crazy."

Elena looked at Caroline sadly. "I know. The things he does are awful, but he treats me so well. I can't help that I love him. He wasn't like this when we were first together. It was once Enzo came along and practically brain-washed him." She said and a tear rolled down her cheek. "I thought about breaking up with him, but I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it because I loved him and because I was worried about what he would do to me after I broke up with him as well."

Caroline pressed her lips into a thin line as she processed it all. "Alright. We're done for today. That's all Elena. Thank you." Caroline said and knocked several times on the door to alert one of the officers to come and take Elena back to her cell. Once the officer took her away, Caroline turned to Tyler.

"Thanks for that, Tyler."

"No worries, Care." He said and put his hands in his pockets. Caroline could tell he wanted to say something, and she had a feeling she knew what it was.

"Look Care, I know you have great judgement and all, but you really should be more wary of Klaus. He's not exactly the kind of guy that gives a crap about anyone other than himself. He's cocky and shady. I don't trust him." He said seriously.

Caroline sighed. "Look Tyler –"

"Just be careful, Care. Alright? I don't want to see you hurt."

"I know how you feel about me Tyler." Caroline said, knowing she had to get it out there if this conversation was ever going to end. "But I don't feel the same way about you. I'm sorry, but I can't see anything happening with us. I don't see you that way." She said as gently as possible.

Tyler bit his lip and nodded, looking down at the ground. "I didn't want to think so, but I guess I knew that was coming." He said and looked back at her. "Just please, for both you and I, be careful. I don't trust him."

Caroline swallowed to wet her suddenly dry throat, preparing herself for what she was about to say. "But I do. I trust him."

Tyler sighed and put his hand on the door handle. "I thought so." He said and gave her one last glance. "I've got to go do some work. See you later, Care."

Caroline watched him leave and stood there in the interrogation room for a moment before being able to make herself step outside. She ran and hand through her hair, hating that she had to do that to him, but she knew it had to be done eventually. As she was making her way back to the staff room, she came across Klaus as they crossed paths.

"So how was your talk with Elena?" he asked.

"Surprisingly easy. She cooperated pretty well. Not at first, but once she answered the first question, she kept going. We've got it all recorded, so you guys can watch it later along with Alaric, Elijah and Lexi."

Klaus nodded, and it was clear to Caroline that he had something else on his mind. "And how was Tyler?" he asked and Caroline raised a brow at him for him to elaborate. "He walked past just before looking rather miserable."

Caroline ran her fingers through her hair feeling absolutely awful for rejecting him now like she did. She sighed and let her arms drop to her sides. "I sort of rejected him right after Elena's interrogation. I didn't think he'd take it that badly."

Klaus nodded in understanding and looked up at the ceiling for a moment before looking back at her. "You aren't regretting it, are you, love?" he asked with a gleam in his blue eyes that said he was up to no good.

"No. I just feel awful about it."

Klaus gave her a devious smirk. "And why would you feel awful about that? I'm sure lying to him would have been worse."

"Well yeah, but –" she stopped and raised a brow at him, confused, "Why do you keep looking at me like that?"

He looked up and his smirk grew as he leaned down and kissed her. Caroline's entire being went into shock in that moment, completely unable to register what was happening. She told herself to push him away but she ended up melting into his arms as they wrapped around her waist, letting him pull her closer. Once she fully registered the situation, her eyes flew open and she pulled herself away from him. All she could gather in that moment was the large grin on his face before her eyes looked up and found the decoration that she had fallen victim to.

"The god damned mistletoe." She muttered.

"For once I'm actually appreciating my sisters love of Christmas decorations." He said and his voice snapped her back to reality. She looked back at him, eyes wide as her chest rose and fell with each deep breath she took, trying to get rid of the breathlessness she felt before grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling his lips back down to hers.

Klaus didn't waste a moment resting his hands on her waist and pushing her up against the wall. She ran her hands over his chest and up his neck, and threading her fingers into his hair as the kiss turned passionate. She indulged in the taste of his lips as she filled with lust – a lust that only he could give remedy for. She felt his hands travel from her waist and down her back and they explored her body. She couldn't believe that she had held back for so long, that she'd stopped herself from going after what she'd wanted when he –

"What the Hell? Finally!"

Caroline's eyes flew open and she quickly pushed Klaus away from her and backed away from the wall and him as fast as she could. She looked between Klaus – who was momentarily shocked before recovering so much faster than Caroline could – and Katherine who stood in the middle of the hallway gawking at the two of them. Caroline fumbled to find words.

"We were just – uh, uh – the mistletoe happened again."

She heard Klaus snicker at her inability to form a sentence and she hit his arm, only to make his snicker turn into a chuckle. Katherine shook her head at Caroline.

"Nuh-uh, don't blame your little passionate moment on the mistletoe. The mistletoe didn't happen. You two happened."

"Katherine, please." Caroline pleaded. In that moment, Caroline felt like digging herself a hole to crawl into and die from embarrassment. One of her sergeants had just walked in on her, the lieutenant, making out with Klaus – who was also one of her sergeants. _Great_.

Katherine pulled out her phone and started dialling in a phone number. "No way. I'm calling Rebekah."

"Oh God, help me." Caroline said and looked up at the ceiling.

Klaus grabbed Katherine by the wrist to stop her from bringing the phone to her ear. "Don't even think about calling my sister, Katerina." He warned her. Katherine released a laugh.

"Oh, please. She's going to want to know that her Christmas decorations made you two hook up."

"Well that's too bad because she's not going to find out." Klaus said with a tone that said there was no option but his. Katherine pouted at him and brought out the puppy dog eyes.

"Aw, why do you have to ruin the fun?" she said then narrowed her eyes at him before yanking her wrist out of his grasp. "Fine. But if she doesn't find out sooner or later – which she will, mind you – I'm going to tell her myself. Have fun you two." She said with a wink before turning on her heels and leaving.

Caroline bit her lip, daring a sideways glance at Klaus. He was looking down the hall in the direction Katherine left before turning to look back at her. Caroline nodded a little awkwardly.

"Remind me to never let Rebekah hang the Christmas decorations from now on." She said.

"No promises, sweetheart."

* * *

**_Tisk tisk_ Caroline. It's reasons like this that you shouldn't bottle up your emotions! **

**I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Let me know your thoughts and what you think is going to happen next in reviews! I love hearing from you guys. I'll update soon!**

**Celeste xoxo**


	11. Take A Chance, Caroline

**Hi guys! I'm back with another chapter! I think you are really going to like this one, so I won't give a summary this time ;) Here is chapter 10: _Take A Chance, Caroline._**

*****IMPORTANT NOTICE*****  
**I will be changing my Pen Name within the next two days from_ Celeste Russo _to_ Celeste 0261_**

* * *

It had been three weeks since the mistletoe incident, and between that time Caroline promptly left and moved back home. As much as Klaus wanted her, she was a confusing woman to work out. She said her reason for leaving was because she couldn't stay when she already had a home and because she _'needs some time to think straight'_. Whatever the Hell she meant by that.

During work, Caroline would go to lengths to avoid Klaus and it drove him mad. He could even admit that it was easier to deal with her sarcasm and not having had anything to do with her at all compared to hooking up and then her pretending like he wasn't even there. Sometimes he was tempted to just pull her to the side and kiss her senseless just to remind her what it was like to be in each other's lives. When Christmas Eve came around, he knew that she couldn't ignore him anymore.

Alaric, Elijah and Lexi had decided to have a work function for all the team to gather together and celebrate the holiday season at the department. Caroline being Caroline, she could never deny an invitation to a function or an event, let alone let someone else take control of organising it. Caroline had instantly volunteered to organise the event, which didn't surprise Klaus at all. Klaus, however, was one that could never turn down an opportunity to have a few scotches with his mates. That, and he knew Caroline would be there.

* * *

Caroline searched through her wardrobe for an outfit to wear to the work function. She'd spent the past week busy organising it and the entire day setting everything up that she didn't have time to pick out what she was going to wear.

Now that she was back in her own house, it was much quieter. She had her own bed back, her privacy, her own house rules, but she couldn't deny that she missed Klaus' company, the smell of paint as she walked past his studio, the library where she would go to escape her stress from work, the two of them sitting down in the kitchen for coffee every morning. She wouldn't admit it out loud, though, and certainly not to Klaus. She felt bad about giving him the silent treatment over the past few weeks, and she absolutely hated being so cold towards him, but deep down she knew that if she stayed at his house any longer, she wouldn't have left.

She found a dress in her wardrobe and pulled it off the rack to hold it up in front of herself in the mirror. It was a short black skater dress. Around the waist of the dress was an intricate black lace, and the dress had a low cut neckline which showed a decent amount of cleavage. She contemplated whether to wear it or not, but settled for the latter, knowing that wearing the dress would just mean she was teasing Klaus, and even she couldn't do that to him.

She continued her search through her wardrobe until she found a navy cap-sleeved dress that hugged her body nicely. She put it on and looked in the mirror, frowning at her reflection. She had absolutely adored the dress when she first bought it, but she didn't feel the same love for it anymore. She turned her gaze towards her wardrobe and bit her lip before switching the dresses over and putting the black one on. She put on a pair of black heels that complemented the dress greatly and curled her hair, letting the waves hang around her shoulders loosely. She quickly put her makeup on as naturally as possible with the exception of eyeliner to make her eyes stand out, and headed out to the work function.

* * *

Klaus arrived at the department early, knowing Caroline would be one of the first few people there, and sure enough, he was right. She stepped into the foyer only five minutes after he had arrived and his jaw went slack at the sight of her. The black dress hugged her body in all the right places, showing off her long legs and her breasts, all the while still giving off an elegance that only she could pull off. Her hair cascaded around her shoulders in waves, framing her face beautifully. Her eyes landed on his, and he could see she was trying to make herself look away but was unable to. They stood there with their eyes locked on one another for several moments before he spoke.

"Hello, sweetheart." He said, trying yet again to get her to talk to him.

"Hi." She said softly before she started looking around, probably for someone to escape to so she didn't need to talk to him, he thought.

"Caroline, you can't keep ignoring me. We need to talk sooner or later."

"I don't want to do this right now, Klaus."

"Well we might as well get it over with now since there's nobody else here yet. It's going to happen eventually."

She turned to look back at him finally, but her eyes were sad. He could see what he thought was pain in them, as if it hurt just to look at him. That's how he felt lately when he looked at her.

"No." she said with a shake of her head.

"Yes, Caroline." he protested. "Why do you keep pushing me away? Tell me."

"Because I don't want to get hurt." She said and Klaus felt like he'd been slapped across the face. Did she honestly think he'd hurt her? But she knew he wouldn't. He had told her time and time again that he would never do that to her, let alone let anyone else hurt her.

"You know I'd never hurt you, Caroline. Why are you saying that now?"

"I don't know, okay? I just don't know. All I know is that if I let you in, I won't be able to handle it if you changed your mind, and I don't want to have to deal with that afterwards. I'm better off if I keep my guard up and don't let anyone in."

"I think otherwise, love. You're a complete mess and hanging on by a thread at the moment. What makes you think you won't be better off if you let yourself go and be happy?"

She studied him for a moment before answering. "I just do."

They heard the door open and turned to look in the direction of the entrance where Kol, Elijah and Katherine had just walked in from. Klaus wasn't surprised to see his older brother wearing a suit, and he sure wasn't surprised to see Katherine wearing the tightest item of clothing he had seen in all his years. Kol had opted for neat-casual just as Klaus himself had, not really feeling the need to dress up like the others.

"Wow, I can already feel the awkward in the air." Katherine said as she looked between the two of them. Elijah placed a hand on Katherine's lower back and Klaus raised a brow in question at the sight of it. Was something going on there?

"Now, now, Katerina. There's no need for unnecessary comments." Elijah said and led Katherine over to the staff room where the celebration would be held.

Kol stood there looking between both Klaus and Caroline with the biggest smirk on his face, Klaus wanted to hit him. He hated people knowing his business, and he sure as Hell hated it when people like Kol interfere with it, too.

Kol clasped his hands behind his back and looked at Caroline, that annoying smirk still on his face. "When you get bored of my brother here, you know where to find me." Kol said with a wink which only made Klaus ball his hands into fists angrily.

"I'd be leaving now if I were you, Kol." He said through gritted teeth. From the corners of his eyes Klaus saw Caroline pinch the bridge of her nose and shake her head. The smirk on Kol's face changed into a grin.

"And why would I leave when she's such a pretty little thing? I rather enjoy watching you get possessive over her when she wasn't even yours in the first place."

"If you want to see the light of day tomorrow, then I suggest you go. _Now_."

"Oh my God. Just stop it both of you!" Caroline said irritably. "This is a work function, which by the way, took a lot of effort to organise. Let's just enjoy it, okay? Now you," she pointed a finger at Kol, "need to stop trying to hit on me, because it's never going to get anywhere. And you," she turned towards Klaus, looking ready to fire an entire speech at him, but fell silent instead until she found her voice again, "You just need to let it go… to let _me_ go."

Hearing her say those words felt like he'd been shot, and even though he was sure she would deny it, she looked how he felt – hurt. He was used to her denying it, but not to this extent where she'd constantly push him away. But he wasn't going to give up. He always got what he wanted in the end, no matter how long it took to get it.

"If you both would excuse me." She muttered and walked off to the staff room where the others had convened.

"Ouch Nik. That's got to hurt."

"Not necessarily, Kol." Klaus said rather calmly. "You see, I always get what I want in the end, and I know what I want."

* * *

Several hours into the night and several drinks later, the drama had been forgotten – or at least it hadn't been mentioned to Caroline. All of the guys had eventually given in to breaking out the cards again and playing a game of poker while the girls either drank, joined in, or both. Caroline sat at the table with them, watching as Katherine represented the girls in the poker game – even Elijah had dropped the ever-so-responsible façade and joined in on the game. Alaric even agreed on it, too. As each round finished, the amount of poker chips that Klaus had accumulated kept growing while everyone else's either stayed the same or was shrinking. A few more rounds later, Matt had given up.

"That's it. I can't continue. I'm dropping out, man."

"Already mate? We're just getting started."

Kol chuckled. "Already giving up, Donovan? You need to keep going. Don't give Nik a reason to brag."

Matt shook his head and picked up his beer. "Nah, man. I'm not losing another round to him. He manages to win every game every other day. I'm not giving him that satisfaction tonight."

"I'll take over for Matt." Caroline cut in and everyone turned to look at her. "What? I've played poker before. Besides, if anyone can kick Klaus' ass, it's me."

Caroline looked over at Klaus whose eyes had settled on her while everyone else in the room erupted into different reactions. Caroline bit her bottom lip, trying to keep herself from grinning but was unsuccessful. Caroline wasn't sure what it was – maybe the champagne – but she wasn't feeling so uneasy about facing Klaus anymore. Instead, she felt a need to prove that she was perfectly fine, that she could resist him as much as she wanted no matter what everyone else thought.

Klaus raised a brow at her and smirked. "Do you really want to do this, love?"

"Deal the cards, Mikaelson." She replied which earned a chuckle from Katherine.

"You're messing with the wrong Lieutenant, Klaus. She's got her game face on."

"Not to worry," Klaus said as he dragged the deck of cards across the table towards him, all the while eyeing off Caroline, "I like a challenge, but of course, Caroline here already knows that."

"Ooooohh there's always so much tension in the room when you two are together." Kol said with a grin and cracked open another beer, taking a swig. "This is going to be entertaining."

"Don't you mean sexual tension?" Katherine corrected. "These two just need to sleep together already and get it over with."

"Hey!" Caroline cut in. "We're right here."

Katherine smirked at her. "That's kind of the point."

Caroline rolled her eyes and looked back at Klaus. "Come on. Deal the cards."

Klaus dealt the cards between himself, Caroline, Tyler, Kol, Elijah, Katherine and Alaric, leaving both Lexi, Matt and Jeremy looking on. Caroline couldn't help but notice Tyler frowning at the table before picking up his hand of cards. She hoped it had nothing to do with her because she seriously didn't want to deal with it anymore. If someone brought it up, she was going to need another glass or two of champagne.

Caroline picked up her hand of cards and looked over them and she was glad to see that her hand wasn't that bad. She decided to swap two cards over and waited for the others. Once the rest of them had decided, Klaus dealt out the replacement cards. Once Caroline got a good look at her official hand of cards, she couldn't help but smirk.

Caroline looked around the table and saw that both Alaric and Tyler had folded their cards, choosing to not continue the round. Katherine was eyeing off everyone else during the round, obviously trying to work out some kind of strategy. Kol tossed five poker chips into the middle of the table as did Katherine and Elijah, but Klaus threw in ten. Caroline, feeling the need to prove a point, threw in fifteen and sat back with a smug smile on her face.

Klaus raised a brow at her. "Getting competitive, are you now, sweetheart?"

"I don't like anything but first place." She replied.

Klaus chuckled and took a swig of his scotch. "That's what I like about you."

Caroline rolled her eyes as Elijah folded and piked out of the round, Katherine and Kol shortly following suit. Klaus threw in another ten chips to the centre of the table before leaning forward towards Caroline.

"Choose wisely, love. I've been the reigning champion of this game for the past three years."

Caroline narrowed her eyes at him and tossed in another five chips to match his amount. "I wouldn't underestimate me if I were you."

"Well then, why don't we make this interesting?" Katherine cut in. They both turned to Katherine and waited for her to continue. "You two should make a bet. Each pick now what the loser has to do if you win."

"You do realise that if Klaus wins he is more than likely going to make her have sex with him, right?" Lexi pointed out and Kol clapped a hand on her back with a chuckle.

"I always knew you had a humorous side hidden behind work hours, Deputy."

"I'm not a robot, Kol. I do have emotions." Lexi said and finished off her wine.

"Anyway," Katherine said, interrupting Lexi and Kol's conversation. "Pick something now, and whoever loses – well, you know the rules."

Caroline bit her lip in thought as she tried to think of something for Klaus to do if – no, sorry, _when_ – he lost, before finally coming up with an idea that she knew would hit a nerve.

"If you lose, you need to take your art out of your studio and hang all of your paintings, including here at the department."

She saw Klaus tense up and set his jaw. "I'm not doing that."

"What? Aren't confident enough to win the round?"

"I'm unbelievably confident about winning this round, love. It's just that you know why I don't put my art on display."

"Well then, you better not lose." She countered.

"Very well, sweetheart." He said and licked his lips before smirking at her. "If you lose, you need to give me a chance. To give us a chance. And it can't be half-hearted either. You need to put effort into it, too. Just like how you do with your job."

In that moment, not even all of the alcohol she had drunk could drown away the seriousness of the deal. She _had_ to win this round.

"Okay." She finally said and held her cards tightly in her hands, hoping to however many Gods there were for her to win. She was confident in her hand of cards, but so was Klaus. She slowly laid down her hand of cards on the table as if she was laying down her life for someone else to determine her fate.

"Four of a kind. Queens." She said and felt a smirk tug at the corners of her lips.

Everyone's eyes were trained on the two of them, all the while Kol said a long _'Ooooohhh' _just to emphasize the intensity of the moment. Klaus had on a poker face as he looked at her over his cards, and all it did was make her doubt herself. She turned her glass around nervously, waiting for the verdict.

Caroline saw Klaus give her the faintest smirk before setting down his cards.

A Royal Flush.

Her jaw went slack as everyone else around her either erupted into cheers or complaints – most of them cheers because they were waiting for something to finally happen between the two of them. Tyler didn't look too please and walked out of the room, Jeremy following after him. Katherine leaned across the table to the two of them grinning. "You two might as well leave now. We all know what happens next."

Caroline looked down at the table, feeling her face go red from a combination of embarrassment and nervousness. Klaus just glared at Katherine.

"My part of the bet wasn't for sex, Katerina. It was for her to finally give the possibility of her and I being together a chance."

Caroline looked up from the table to Klaus in that moment, his words surprising her. She found it so hard to grasp onto the idea that he actually wanted a relationship with her even though he had admitted it to her several weeks ago.

"_I fancy you." _He had said to her._ "Is that so hard to believe?" _

She still found it hard to believe even though she knew deep down that it was the truth, and even though she didn't think she would ever admit it out loud, she was starting to feel as happy as a child in a candy shop.

"I never thought I'd see the day that Klaus Mikaelson wanted to settle down and get serious with someone." Katherine said and it snapped Caroline out of her reverie. In that time everyone had gone back to talking and doing their own thing. Caroline stood up from her chair.

"Well I'm going to get another drink. Do either of you want anything?"

Katherine pointed a finger at Klaus. "He'll go with you to get a drink. I'm going to have a chat with Mr Morality." She said and headed off to go find Elijah.

"I believe that's Katerina's not so subtle way of saying we need to spend some time together alone."

"And I believe that is my cue to go get something strong to drink." Caroline said and Klaus stood up from the table to speak with her properly.

"Do you mind if I join you?" he asked, which surprised her. He was usually the kind of guy that would just do things without your permission, but Caroline took this as him actually trying to get her to see that he wanted more than just a fling.

She pressed her lips together before letting a small smile appear on her face. "I don't see why not."

* * *

By this point Klaus wasn't too sure how many glasses of scotch he'd had, but he was sure that it was at least just over a bottle. Caroline? He wasn't too sure, though she did seem more approachable and bubbly. He finished his scotch as she finished the last of her champagne before she put it down and took hold of his hand, pulling him away from the drinks table.

"What are you doing?" he asked her with a brow raised.

"I think we should dance."

He chuckled at the idea of it. "And why is that, sweetheart?"

"Because there has been music playing all night and I haven't danced yet, neither have you, and practically everyone else is dancing, anyway." She said with a _'duh'_ expression. "And just because I want to."

He wanted to say no to her, but then he saw the pleading expression on her face and couldn't deny her of what she wanted. That, and he couldn't say no to her when she was in that dress she was wearing. "Alright, fine."

She grinned from ear to ear and he led her over to where everyone else was dancing. He lost track of how long they were there, dancing around with everyone else and him spinning her around while she laughed. What he did know though, was that even though he liked Caroline how she was before – stubbornness, sarcastic comments and all – this relaxed and care-free version of her made him want to be around Caroline even more.

"You're quite the dancer." He said after a while with a grin.

"Well, I've had training." She said knowingly. "I used to live here in Mystic Falls until I was nineteen. I left so I could get into the police force, then I obviously came back because I got transferred here. But when I was seventeen, I got crowned Miss Mystic Falls." She said proudly.

"Well you would have had my vote, sweetheart. That's for sure."

In that moment Katherine came over and interrupted.

"Sorry to interrupt whatever romance is starting to blossom over here, but I just wanted to say goodbye. I'm trying this new thing called being polite and using manners. Apparently saying goodbye is part of that."

Klaus' expression contorted in confusion. "What kind of discussion were you and Elijah having? Has he managed to convert and train you to use common courtesy?"

Katherine shrugged. "Probably something along the lines of that. But he can say and do whatever he wants and I'll be all for it."

"Please, for the sake of many, don't talk to me about my brother like that."

"Whatever," Katherine said dismissively, waving it off. "Anyway, I'll see you both in a day or two. Have a good Christmas."

Klaus watched as Katherine hugged Caroline goodbye and walked off out of the department. Caroline looked around.

"Everyone's started to leave now. You know that when Katherine Pierce leaves a party, the party leaves, too."

Klaus nodded, looking around. "I think we should all start heading off, then."

"But I don't want it to end yet." She said and rested her hands on his chest. "Did you know that we've managed to go for six and a half hours without an awkward conversation tonight? That's a new record. I think we need to celebrate."

"And how do you suppose we do that?"

He watched as Caroline bit her lip in thought. He knew that she was thinking, but didn't know what about. He could tell she was debating with herself over something. After a few moments she reached up and pressed her lips to his ever so gently before pulling back after a moment.

"We could go back to my place or yours? Open up a bottle of champagne and have a few drinks?" she suggested.

"So is that our thing now? Champagne?"

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. "We don't have a thing."

"We might after tonight with how we're going with this champagne." He pointed out and he couldn't help but love the smile that appeared on her face.

* * *

Once they'd arrived back at Klaus' place, Caroline had begun to sober up rather quickly, not that she cared. She knew she was likely to have a hangover tomorrow. Needless to say, she wanted that champagne A-SAP.

Klaus unlocked the front door and held it open for her as she walked inside. As much as he acted like an alpha male and was sometimes a pain to work with, he was still a gentleman. He led her into the kitchen and opened up the fridge. Caroline could see the thoughtful expression on his face as he looked over the bottles.

"I tend to not have many options when it comes to champagne since I'm more for scotch, love, but I do have a bottle of moscato here that I tend to save for Rebekah. She's a bit picky with her drinks, I always need to have one specifically for her when she visits." He said and she nodded an _okay_. He took the bottle out, opened it and poured her a glass, pouring himself a glass of scotch.

"Thank you." She said and took the glass from him, only to find herself staring down at her drink.

"Klaus," she said and he put his glass down to give her his full attention, "I'm sorry I've been so cold towards you the past few weeks. I was confused with what I wanted and with what I was telling myself I wanted. I know that's no excuse, but I just need you to know I really am sorry."

Klaus nodded, his eyes staying focussed on her. "I know, and I understand."

"Could you ever forgive me?" She asked with a hopeful expression. She could handle dead bodies and criminals easily, but she didn't know if she could handle it or not if he said no.

"It's kind of hard for me not to forgive you, Caroline."

She felt a sense of relief wash over her and she wrapped her arms around him, Klaus' arms instantly wrapping around her small waist hugging her body to his.

"Thank you." She said quietly before pulling away just enough to look at him. "Really, thank you. I don't know what I would have –"

His lips cut her off as they pressed against hers, and Caroline was stunned for a moment before her lips responded to his. Their lips moved slowly against each other before parting to allow the kiss to become more passionate. Caroline rested a hand on his chest as the other cupped the back of his neck, pulling his lips down to hers. She leaned back against the kitchen counter as it became more intense, their kisses becoming more urgent as the seconds went by. Klaus lifted her up by the waist and sat her down on the counter, Caroline accidently knocking the glasses over with her body. Caroline pulled back just enough so she could speak as she caught her breath.

"The glasses –"

"I'll clean it up later." He murmured in such a husky voice it drove her mad.

"Upstairs." She said before pressing her lips to his again. "Now."

Klaus picked her up from the counter and carried her upstairs to his room, putting her down to open the door which was enough time for Caroline to grab the front of his shirt and pull him inside, kicking the door shut behind them. He pressed her up against the door before he started trailing kisses down her throat to her collar bone, making Caroline arch her back at the feeling of his lips on her skin. She found the hem of his shirt and pulled it off of him before he started pulling her dress off her body, leaving her in nothing but her heels and underclothes. Their lips crashed together again as she unbuckled his belt and pulled it from the loops of his jeans, undoing the buttons and zip. He lifted her up and took her over to his bed while she kicked off her shoes. As he lay her down on the bed and kissed her senseless, all she could think of was how she finally knew that this was what she wanted – to be with Klaus. To spend a lifetime with him, to go to places and see and do things with him that she had always wanted from a relationship that she'd never seemed to manage to find. She wanted to feel that rush of adrenaline that he allowed her to feel when she was with him, and to feel that reassuring sense of safety that he provided. To feel like she was needed and wanted by someone, like she was their oxygen that kept them going each and every day. As he made love to her throughout the night, she finally realised that's what he was to her, and that she was exactly that to him as well.

* * *

Klaus woke the next morning to find Caroline still asleep with her face buried in the crook of his neck, and the events of last night finally hit home. He smirked at the memory of it, but not a cocky smirk – one of content. He ran his fingers gently through her blonde curls, brushing the soft locks out of her face. He continued to comb his fingers through her hair but stopped when she stirred, her eyes fluttering open as she slowly woke up. She shifted so she could look up at him and a sleepy smile appeared on her face; one that he couldn't help but smile back to.

"Good morning."

"Yes, it is a good morning, isn't it?"

She laughed sleepily, still waking up. "Shut up. Don't start already." She said and rubbed her eyes. "How long have you been awake for?"

"About fifteen minutes."

She nodded but then her face changed as if something dawned on her then sat upright, hugging the sheets around her. "Crap, it's Christmas!"

She turned to look at him, shock completely written over her face, only to make him burst out laughing.

"What's so funny? It's Christmas and I haven't even gone out to buy anything to post to my mother back home."

"Relax." He said, pulling her to him to place a kiss on her lips. "You can go buy a present tomorrow when the shops are open and post it to your mother saying that the delivery was delayed or that you just got really busy with work, which is technically the truth."

She bit her lip and nodded. "Okay. Okay, I can do that."

He put a finger under her chin and lifted it to make her look at him. "There's no need to stress, sweetheart. Relax. Now, put some clothes on, I'm going to make some breakfast." He said and got up to go put his jeans on. "How do you feel about bacon and eggs?"

She smiled. "That sounds good to me. In fact, just the idea of you cooking sounds good. That's almost a Christmas present in itself." She teased.

He chuckled and did up his belt as she pulled her dress on over her head. "Don't get too cocky now, love. It's only ten in the morning after all. Besides, last night was an entire year's worth of presents in itself."

She picked up his shirt and tossed it at him. "Just go make the bacon and eggs, Klaus."

"Demanding already? That was quick."

She folded her arms. "As your Lieutenant, when I tell you to go make the bacon and eggs, you go and make the bacon and eggs."

He smirked and gave her a two finger salute. "I'm onto it, Lieutenant Forbes."

* * *

**So Klaraholics, what did you think? ;) I've had all of the chapters of this fanfic mapped out for so long that I was dying each time I wrote a chapter because I knew I was getting closer to writing this one. However, with the sex scene, I decided to take a different approach compared to other writers. I didn't want the sex scene to be too detailed (because I know that some people do feel uncomfortable reading scenes like that. I know I sometimes do), but I didn't want it to be under-detailed either. I wanted a good balance, and I wanted the main focus of it to be a moment of realisation for Caroline to truly find out that Klaus was all she really wanted and needed. I wanted it to be passionate between the characters, but give her internal thoughts more of a romantic feel along with a sense of self discovery. **

**Anyway, let me know your thoughts on it in reviews, as I'm especially curious to see what you all thought about the style of writing I used for that scene especially (and the rest of the chapter, of course!). Happy reading!**

**Celeste xoxo**


	12. Say Something

**Hello again! I'm back with yet another chapter! I really enjoyed reading this one, but I also killed my own feels while writing it, and I have a feeling you guys might hate me after reading this one... But hey, I like killing feels ;) Anyway, please don't hate me after this one! I promise this chapter ends better than you think it will when you read a certain part. You just need to trust me on this one! Anyway, please enjoy chapter 11: _Say Something_**

* * *

It was the day after Christmas and Caroline was back at work. Tyler, Jeremy and Lexi ran the department during Christmas day, allowing the others to spend the day with their families while Caroline spent most of the day with Klaus before she had to head home to do some paperwork. Both Klaus and Caroline had decided to keep the events of the night before between themselves, thinking it was the best option.

Caroline was in her office writing out a plan of action on how they were going to capture Damon and Enzo that needed to be discussed in the meeting in a half hour. She was too distracted to have written it out properly yesterday once she got home from Klaus' house, so she had opted to do less important paperwork and save the major work for today when she could think straight. Needless to say, she was consumed by Klaus, and she hadn't been in such a good mood at work in a long time.

Katherine came by her office and poked her head around the door. "Hey Caroline, is that meeting still going ahead at eleven?"

Caroline looked up from her work to Katherine with a smile. "Yep, it sure is." She said cheerfully before looking back at her page.

Katherine looked at her strangely. "You're in a good mood. Care to share what's got you all happy?"

Caroline stares at her papers for a moment, contemplating what to say. She was a horrible liar, but she wasn't just going to come out and say to Katherine '_I had sex with Klaus on Christmas Eve and it was great!' _She would never hear the end of it from Katherine, or anyone for that matter, and besides, she swore she wouldn't tell anyone.

"Do I need a reason to be happy? I'm just in a good mood today," she said and pointed her pen in Katherine's direction, "So don't ruin it for me."

"I won't. Trust me, I don't plan to, though I can't say the same for Kol or Klaus."

No. She definitely couldn't say the same thing for Kol. As for Klaus, well, Katherine didn't know that he's the reason she was in such a good mood, and Caroline thought it was best to keep it that way.

"Don't give them any ideas. Please."

"So," Katherine leaned against the doorframe with her arms crossed over her chest, "How was the rest of the work function the other night?"

"I left soon after you. Everyone was starting to leave, so we did, too."

Katherine raised a brow. "We?" she repeated Caroline's words and she froze for a moment, closing her eyes and thinking _crap, I just screwed up_.

"We? I never said _we_. I said _I_." Caroline attempted to lie, but failed.

"No, you definitely said we." Katherine said then her jaw dropped. "Oh my God, did you leave with Klaus?"

The shock appeared on Caroline's face before she could stop herself, leaving her with no choice but to somehow warp the truth. "Well unless I wanted to catch a cab home, then I wasn't going to be able to leave. He gave me a ride back home." It was technically the truth, but he just dropped her back home the next morning…

"And then you two slept together."

"Katherine!" Caroline said then resorted to throwing her pen in Katherine's direction. Katherine laughed as she dodged it, Caroline's face turning red.

"Okay, okay, I'll stop. But seriously, I don't believe you." She said with a smirk and waved her fingers at her. "I'll see you at eleven, then."

Caroline sighed and put her head in her hands once Katherine left. It was only a few hours into her shift and it was all blowing up in her face already. Pushing her thoughts to the back of her mind, she knuckled down and focussed on her work again.

Not even ten minutes had passed when Klaus came by her office and her mood perked up again. He really did look great in a uniform, and the black and blue colours really made his eyes stand out even more. He even looked dangerous to a degree, especially with the gun attached to his belt.

"Hello, sweetheart."

A smile crept onto her face but she shook it off and looked back at her papers. "As much as I want to talk to you – and believe me, I do – I need to do this paperwork before the meeting in fifteen minutes."

He stepped into her office and walked over to her desk, leaning down and resting his palms on the table. "I'm sure it can wait, love. Besides, I've got something rather important that you should know."

She put her pen down and gave him her full attention. "Okay. What did you need to tell me?"

"Well it's more of a question, really." He said with that smirk that told her he was planning something. Her face dropped, knowing that half the time he used that look, it was something that was either going to be good or a complete bomb shell – according to Caroline's opinion, anyway.

"Oh God, what did you do?"

He shook his head. "Nothing. And you just ruined the moment, sweetheart. I was going to ask you to dinner tomorrow night, but you obviously thought I had some genius plan with an ulterior motive."

"Well, you technically still do." She pointed out.

"Okay, I'll give you that one. But seriously, Caroline, keep up. I just asked you out to dinner and you've skipped the question completely."

She blinked a few times and shook her head to clear it. "Right, sorry. And yeah, I would like that a lot." She said with a smile and felt her cheeks go red. She got up from her chair to place a light kiss on his lips, which earned her another smirk from him.

"What time should I pick you up?" he asked as he put a hand on her waist while the other pushed a loose blonde curl behind her ear.

"Is seven-thirty, alright? I finish work at five-thirty tomorrow, so I'll need some time to get ready."

"That's quite alright, sweetheart."

"Great." She beamed. "But now I seriously have to finish this paperwork."

"I'm sure it can wait, love." He said and brushed a thumb lightly over her cheek which made her close her eyes and release a soft sigh. His touch drove her wild as did the sound of his sweet, accented voice. A moment later his lips were on hers and they were just as intoxicating as everything else about him. She found herself forgetting about whatever work she had left to do and focussed solely on the taste of his lips. He backed her up against the wall and she let him do so, pulling him closer by the front of his shirt as their tongues caressed the other. She ran her hands through his hair and knotted her fingers in it as his hands moved down to her hips, squeezing her hips lightly. When she felt his hands travel down to her ass, it was all she needed to snap back to the reality that was them making out in her office.

She broke her lips away from his – as much as she didn't want to – and spoke as she steadied her breath.

"I need to do my paperwork."

Klaus looked at her for a moment before chuckling. "I'm surprised that you were even able to think about paperwork just then."

"It was rather difficult but I persevered."

"So I've noticed. I'll let you get back to work. I'll see you later, love." He pressed his lips to hers lightly for a moment before leaving her office.

Caroline sat back in her seat at her desk with a goofy grin on her face and started thinking about what she should wear tomorrow night to dinner, completely unable to think about her paperwork now.

* * *

Caroline arrived at the conference room to see her team had already convened there before her. Kol was doodling on a piece of paper while Katherine sat back in her chair examining her nails. Caroline saw Klaus looking at her with that typical smirk of his that she had come to find severely attractive and had to keep a smile of her own from showing on her face as she made her way to her seat.

"Alright, what's the goss, gorgeous?" Kol said with a grin on his face.

Caroline rolled her eyes and she could sense Klaus' anger flaring already without having to look at him.

"Let's not start this now. Okay?"

"I agree." Katherine said. "So what did you want to discuss?"

Caroline snuck a look in Klaus' direction to see if he was okay and saw that the tension was slowly leaving his body. With that, she sighed and let herself continue.

"Right, well it's rather simple, really." She said and folded her arms to lean forward on the table. "Today's the day we are going to put Damon Salvatore and Enzo behind bars."

* * *

Klaus made his way down to the address they had uncovered during the interrogations with Caroline and the rest of the team. Tyler, Matt and Jeremy joined them as extra support in case they needed it, knowing that last time two out of the three criminals had swiftly gotten away. Klaus wasn't going to let them go this time. Jeremy had told Klaus that he was going to show no mercy to Damon, seeing the situation the bastard had gotten his sister into. Klaus couldn't blame him.

They parked the cars and got out, going straight over to the house without hesitating, their guns in hand. They wanted the element of surprise. The door had been chained shut from the inside, so Caroline opened it as far as it would go and hit the chain with her gun, the old chain snapping easily. The door flew open and they all poured inside, all heading in different directions to cover the place quickly.

The house was probably about twenty years old, and signs of age were scattered around the place. Cracks in the walls, dull light bulbs, miss-matched furniture, faded carpets and paint. However old it was, it was evident it was still being lived in. Klaus made his way into the lounge room with his gun raised in case he needed it at the last second, but the room was clear. He pressed down on the button of his radio and spoke into it to the rest of the team.

"West side, lounge room is clear." He said and moved onto the next room, making his way down the hall until he reached the dining room. That room was clear also. He called over the radio to let the others know before proceeding to another room where he crossed paths with Matt.

"All clear, Donovan?"

"All clear." Matt confirmed with a nod.

"We'll check out the back, then. There's a large shed in the backyard."

He gestured for Matt to follow and he did so, the two of them making their way out to the back shed. Matt put his hand on the handle and looked at Klaus who raised his gun and nodded, prepared for whatever was inside. Matt swung the door open and that's when the guns sounded.

Both Matt and Klaus hit the ground for cover as the ammunition flew over their heads, both of them scrambling to get to cover, but the problem was that there wasn't much to take cover with. Everything around them could easily be destroyed with a small round of bullets. The best cover Klaus could find was the door, so he stood behind it as he fired back at them. Matt was more hesitate to firing at them, as were most officers, but Klaus was an exception. He didn't care if he fired at someone or not; as long as they hadn't broken the law, he wouldn't fire. If they did? Well, it's not something anyone particularly wanted to find out.

"What are you waiting for, Donovan? Sometime today would be good!" he yelled over to Matt who was taking cover behind a table. Klaus switched the empty magazine in his gun for a new fully loaded one and clicked it in securely before aiming at Damon and firing again.

Not even a minute later, Caroline and the rest of the team had made their way to the shed and ducked behind cover as another onslaught of ammunition came flying their way. Klaus stopped firing for a moment to look around and found Caroline with Katherine firing her gun at Enzo from behind a set of large metal shelves that were covered in an abundance of timber. As much as he would have thought it was hot to see a woman like Caroline with a gun in hand and firing away like a total bad ass, now wasn't the time.

He turned his attention back to the situation and aimed his gun at Damon's head, only to be stopped from pulling the trigger by a blind pain that struck his shoulder. The most excruciating pain he had ever felt in his entire life shot through his body, the pain so horrible he didn't have the ability to scream as the moment hit home hard. In a haze, he saw his gun slip from his fingers and land on the ground in front of him, only to be followed by him falling on his knees after another three shots of pain. He grabbed onto his shoulder but released it the minute he touched it, the contact only making it worse. As he pulled his hand away, he saw the crimson colour that was his blood covering his hand.

* * *

Caroline fired her gun at Enzo until the magazine was emptied of bullets. As she loaded her gun, she looked around to make sure her team was alright, but her heart skipped several beats when she saw something she never thought she would ever see.

It was Klaus, his shoulder bleeding profusely from several gun shots, falling to his knees, then hitting the ground hard on his side.

Caroline felt someone shaking her, bringing her back to the horrible reality which was the grounds of open fire. It was Katherine, her grip on Caroline's shoulder tighter than she ever thought the girl had the strength to do.

"Caroline, snap out of it! Get down!"

Caroline ducked down and grabbed for the radio, holding down the button and yelling into the speaker. "We need back up. Send in a paramedic. We've got sergeant Mikaelson down. I repeat, we've got sergeant Mikaelson down."

Her voice cracked when she said his name, and it was even more evident the second time she said it. She turned back to look over at him, trying her best to keep a professional state and not get emotional in the middle of the mission, and felt her heart break at the sight she saw.

"Katherine, cover me." She said, her eyes still on Klaus.

Katherine looked between Caroline and Enzo and Damon. "What? No way. Keep your ass here or else you're going to get shot, too, you idiot."

"I can't let him bleed to death!" she snapped at Katherine as she prepared herself to bolt. She knew it was stupid and that Katherine was right, but she couldn't leave him there like that. No matter whether it was Klaus or not, it was her job as lieutenant to make sure everyone on her team was alright, and she intended on keeping them all alive.

She made her way over as far as she could with cover until she had to make a move and run through open ground. She prepared herself, ready to finally experience the pain of a bullet if she got hit, and sprung from her spot behind the table where Matt and Kol were. She sprinted across the floor and felt the wind of a bullet pass her by a few centimetres before she dived behind cover and fired several times at Damon who had a maniacal grin on his face. A mixture of emotions welled up inside of her as she managed to hit Damon with several bullets, knocking him down. The satisfaction she felt when she hit Damon was both satisfying yet disgusting at the same time.

"Drop your gun!" she yelled to Enzo who was too preoccupied looking at Damon falling rather than at her to avoid the bullet that hit him next. She fired at him again to make sure he stayed down and once she was sure, she rushed over to Klaus.

"Klaus? Klaus, listen to me." She said and patted his cheeks lightly to make him open his eyes. He eventually opened his eyes and she saw they were blood-shot. She released a sigh of relief when she saw he was still alive.

"Okay, you're going to be okay. Just keep your eyes open. Just look at me. Keep your eyes on me." She said, trying so hard to keep the emotion from being evident in her voice. She didn't want to cry in front of him or anyone else for that matter. It would only make him go into a state of panic, including her.

She quickly unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it over his shoulder as gently as possible, but he still cried out in pain when she had to move his arm.

"Shhh. It's okay. You're going to be okay." She said and felt her heart break at the pain in his voice. She knew she was trying to comfort herself at the same time as him, but it wasn't working, especially when she managed to get the left side of his shirt off and saw the bullet holes. He was bleeding out. If they waited around much longer, Caroline knew he wouldn't make it.

"Kol, Tyler, Matt, whoever, I don't care. Just someone help me over here. We need to get him to a hospital."

Caroline heard Klaus mumble something and she turned her attention back to him. "What? Klaus, talk to me. Say something." She said, knowing it would help with keeping him awake.

He sucked in a breath which Caroline could tell was painful before choking out "This was not how I planned on spending my Friday afternoon."

* * *

Caroline and Kol had been waiting outside in the waiting room at the hospital for hours, still not able to go in and see what was going on. Kol had eventually dragged himself downstairs to the café, asking Caroline if she wanted to go with him to get a coffee and meet Rebekah and Elijah there, but she didn't have the heart to leave the room. Kol went anyway to clear his mind while Caroline paced back and forth.

When Caroline saw Dr. Fell walk in, she grabbed onto her arm and looked at her with pleading eyes.

"Hey, is Klaus –"

"He's going to be alright." Meredith said and Caroline let out a small cry of relief, starting to fall apart.

"Thank you." She said, her eyes welling up with tears and she choked back a sob. She had been holding back a pool of emotions since he got shot earlier that day, and now it was starting to come pouring out. She rubbed her eyes before trying to compose herself. "So you removed the bullets?"

Meredith nodded. "There were four bullets that had to be removed, so the poor guy lost a lot of blood. If he got here later, his situation would have been worse than what it is, but he will be alright. He had to have a blood transfusion to make up for the blood loss, but he should be fine. We've given him a sedative to reduce the pain. But I suggest that he doesn't do anything too vigorous for a while or else it will strain his shoulder."

"Thank you." Caroline said again and sniffled. She didn't know what she would have done if he didn't make it. "Really, I mean it. Thank you so much."

Meredith smiled sympathetically at her and put a hand on her shoulders. "You don't need to thank me, it's my job. Klaus is lucky to have someone love him like you do."

Caroline felt her mouth fall open slightly at Meredith's words and was lost for words. Meredith took in the look Caroline was giving her and furrowed her brows in confusion.

"You are his girlfriend, aren't you? Caroline?"

Caroline was speechless. "Uh, yeah. Oh, wait, no. Yes, I'm Caroline, but I'm not his girlfriend. At least not yet, or… I'm his lieutenant." Caroline said, settling for something easier to process. Girlfriend? Where did she get that impression from? Maybe it was the crying…

"Sorry." Meredith said. "I just assumed you were his girlfriend because he kept saying your name when we gave him the sedative. He's pretty fond of you by the sounds of it, Caroline."

Caroline felt her heart swell up in her chest. "I know." She said quietly. "I'm pretty fond of him, too."

* * *

**Okay, so please don't hate me! Hahaha! I was writing that scene when he gets shot and I was telling myself off for killing my own feels. Sorry if it killed yours or if you thought he was dead at one point or another (Actually, I'm not sorry, because I'm turning into a feels-killing machine like Cassie Clare and John Green mwahahahaha!). Anyway, please review! I love reading what you guys have to say :) I'll update soon, so keep a look out for the next chapter!**

**Celeste xoxo**


	13. -- Message to the fans of 'Charge' --

Hi everyone!

So, first of all, I'm sorry if I got you all excited with a message saying that I updated this story, I just have a little message for you all :P

So I've been thinking further into this story and I started thinking about possibly making a sequel to **_Charge _**because this fanfic is nearly finished. I know, it makes me sad too. I've enjoyed writing it so much! *cue tears*

Anyway, I've been thinking about making a sequel, but if I did write a sequel to it, I would want to leave out some of the parts of the future chapters of this one that I was planning on using because I would like to use it in the second story after this one. I'm currently writing the next chapter of _**Charge**_ and will put it up soon, but after the this chapter, I can't write the next one until I've made up my mind on writing a sequel. I guess my question to you lovely, loyal fans is:

Would you like me to write a sequel to **_Charge_**? Would you be interested in reading further into the lives I've put the TVD characters in?

Let me know! I'm really stuck on this idea and I want to keep writing more of **_Charge_**, but it's coming to an ending soon, so I need your opinions and to know whether you guys would like a **_Charge: Part 2_**.

Thanks for all your support for this story and my writing. It means a lot (many hugs and Klaroline feels!)

Celeste xoxo


	14. She's A Lover And A Fighter

**Hello Klaraholics! I'm so sorry for the wait for this chapter! I had a lot of work to do for university and a few rehearsals to attend for my theatre production and was going through a bit of writers block. On the plus side, I felt creative enough to develop this story's plot a bit more to add in a few more chapter to this story before the sequel, so this one is going to go on a little longer than I originally had planned! *cue confetti and streamers* I've come up with most of the plot of the sequel, but I am yet to think of a title for it (I shall let you know when I think of one!).**

**Also, on that note, I have a little request for you creative, artistic, computer savvy fans out there! I would really like this story and the sequel to have their own unique cover pictures, and I would make the edits myself, but I don't have all those cool programs to do so. So I thought "Hey, maybe one of my lovely followers that I couldn't have written this story without would want to make a few?" If any of you are interested, please don't hesitate to PM me! I love hearing from you guys and I will of course credit you for the cover picture! (I believe all artists of any kind should be recognised for their work. I know this as a performer myself). So if you're interested, send me a PM and I'll let you know the details and such! :) **

**Without any further a-do, here is chapter 12: _She's A Lover And A Fighter_**

* * *

Caroline's eyes fluttered open wearily as she woke up the next morning and let them slowly adjust to the light of the room. She shuffled in the chair slightly, trying to get more comfortable. Her back hurt from sleeping upright, but the chair was the only option she had. She had already pushed the limit as far as possible by making the hospital staff let her stay overnight in the ward. She had to show them her badge and tell them she was an officer and that she refused to leave whether they liked it or not. They eventually let her stay once she made a point of parents being allowed to stay with their children, but an officer couldn't stay with someone she cared about? Yes, she had to pull the '_we're lovers'_ excuse out, which she guessed was in some sorts true.

Once she was fully awake, she rubbed her eyes and saw that the kitchen staff had already put the menu list on the table next to Klaus' bed, and next to it was a cup of coffee with a sticky note stuck on the paper cup. The sticky note read: _'Thought you might need a hot coffee after a sleepless night. For you, Miss Forbes – The kitchen staff._'

Caroline smiled at the kind gesture and picked up the coffee. The cup was still warm when she touched it, they must have just placed it there only a few minutes ago. She sipped on her coffee with one hand and held Klaus' hand with her other one as she waited for him to wake up.

After she had finished her coffee, she found herself just sitting in her chair tracing lines with her fingers along the palm of Klaus' hand, not sure what else to do with herself while she waited for him to wake. She knew she had to leave for work in an hour, but she didn't want to go. She wanted to be there when he woke up so she could go to work later on knowing that he was alright. She knew the doctors had told her he was going to be fine, but she needed to see it for herself.

Once again, she found herself doing things she never thought she would for this man; squeezing his hand gently, tenderly brushing his hair off of his forehead with her fingers, kissing his fingertips, before she sighed and leaned back in her chair, still holding his hand with one of hers.

"What am I doing? I don't even know what I'm doing. Do you know what I'm doing? Because I have no clue." She said looking over at Klaus, who she obviously didn't get an answer from. It didn't stop her from talking, though. "I mean, seriously. If it wasn't for that mistletoe, I probably wouldn't be here right now. I would come and visit you of course, because I like to think I'm a decent person, but I wouldn't have forced the hospital staff to let me stay by your bedside overnight. That's crazy." She said and rested her forehead on the mattress. "Hell, I'm crazy."

"You just realised you're crazy? I knew that a long time ago, sweetheart."

Her head shot up and she stared at him with wide eyes before an overly happy smile plastered itself on her face. "You're awake!" she said, completely ignoring the insult and instead grabbing his face in her hands and kissing him. He kissed her back for a moment before tensing up and groaning. Caroline pulled back and put a hand over her mouth.

"Oh, shit. Sorry. I forgot about your shoulder."

"It's fine, love." He said and tried to sit up, Caroline helping him the best she could without hurting him any further. "I just need to keep from using it for a few days."

Caroline shook her head. "Oh no. More than a few days. Doctor Fell said you need take it easy for a while now. Just rest up and get better. And you aren't allowed to do anything vigorous for a while or else you'll strain your shoulder. Doctor's orders."

"Well that sucks for us." He said and Caroline raised a brow until she finally understood what he meant. She rolled her eyes at him.

"Nuh-uh. No way. There will be no such '_vigorous activities'_ between us while you're in this state. You can wait."

"I guess that means I'm going to have to change tonight's dinner reservations." He said and frowned. Caroline chewed on her bottom lip, but shook it off and shrugged her shoulders.

"We can go another day. I don't mind." She said with a sweet smile and squeezed his hand lightly. He smirked at her but then his face contorted in confusion.

"How did you convince them to let you stay here last night?"

Caroline pressed her lips together at the question and bit down on her bottom lip. She felt her cheeks start to burn red. "Well I told them I was an officer and showed them my badge so I could convince them to let me stay, but they asked why, so I sort of lied to them and said I was your girlfriend…"

The smirk reappeared on his face; that smirk that originally had pissed Caroline off in the beginning but she had come to love. It made him look devious, but she loved it.

"And they bought it?"

"Obviously. I even got a free coffee out of it. I get freebies, which reminds me," she said and grabbed the menu from the table and passed it to him, giving him the pen that was stuck in her ponytail from last night when she was doing a crossword puzzle in an old magazine, "Fill out what you want for your meals for today and I'll give it to the kitchen staff."

"I know how it works, love. I've been in a hospital before."

She looked at him curiously. "Really? When?"

He pressed his lips into a thin line and Caroline saw him swallow. There was something haunting in his eyes. "It was a long time ago." He said with a tone that said he wasn't going to say anymore. At least not now anyway.

Once he filled it out, she took it from him and looked at her watch. "I've got to go to the department. I need to supervise the interrogations today. I'll be back later."

"Do me a favour and let them know why you don't mess with Caroline Forbes, okay?" he said with a smirk and she chuckled.

"I think they already know why, but I'll remind them." She reached over and they kissed for a long moment before she pulled back and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze and walking out.

Caroline stopped by the kitchen and dropped off the paper to the staff who gave her a kind smile as they took it from her.

"You didn't need to drop it off, honey. We go around and collect them ourselves."

"I know. I was just going to come by and say thanks for the coffee, so I thought I might as well bring it with me."

She watched as the lady put the sheet down on one of the benches. "You're more than welcome, honey. You looked like you'd need it since you stayed up all night. So how long have you two been together?"

Caroline's jaw dropped again from the question, still not used to the staff asking about her and Klaus, but she had to keep going with what she told them to let her stay last night. Caroline wasn't even sure what they were yet. They hadn't discussed it before, but they were both interested in each other, so…

"Not that long. We've been interested in each other for a while, but I kept denying it and rejecting him until about a week ago." Caroline said and felt herself blush. "If it wasn't for me constantly rejecting him, we would have been together right from the get go."

"Don't blame yourself, darling," one of the other kitchen staff said from the sink across the kitchen, "I kept turning down my husband for about a year before I finally let him take me on a date, then I said no the first time he asked to marry me because it felt too soon, and now six years later we're happily married and have a gorgeous little girl. If anyone was bad, it's me, not you."

Caroline laughed along with the kitchen staff. "I haven't really thought that far ahead, but…"

"But what?" the woman at the sink prompted, noticing Caroline trail off.

"…I would like to make it work; to have a future with him." She said and felt a goofy smile cross her face. "I mean, he's a pain in the ass at the best of times. Like, he will come into my office at work and one minute I'm doing paperwork and then next we're kissing. He's a total distraction, but he's my distraction. He's my pain in the ass." She said with a laugh.

The kitchen staff laughed too and the lady at the sink pointed at herself. "That's my husband to me as well, darling. Sometimes I can't stand him, but I love him to bits."

Caroline smiled then cursed when she saw the time on the clock. "I've got to go to work. I'll be back tonight for a visit. I'll stop by and have a chat."

"Alright, darling. See you later."

Caroline waved goodbye and said thank you for the coffee again before heading down the hall to find Rebekah walking towards the ward she just left from. Rebekah rushed over to her when she saw her.

"Caroline, were you able to see Nik? They didn't let anyone in last night."

Caroline felt a rush of guilt that she had convinced the staff to let her in when his own sister wasn't allowed to visit him.

"Yeah, I saw him. He's awake now. He's getting better. His shoulder just hurts a lot."

Rebekah's face contorted in confusion. "Wait, how did you get in? Visiting hours don't happen for another half hour." She said and eyed Caroline. "And did you even do your hair today? Because it's a serious mess."

Caroline instinctively rushed to fix her hair, feeling her cheeks go bright red. "Well, in all honesty, Bekah… they let me see him last night and I convinced them to let me stayed." She admitted. "I haven't left since I got here yesterday."

Rebekah looked hurt. "So you could see him, but his own sister couldn't?"

Caroline shook her head. "It's not like that, Bekah. I had to persuade them in every possible way to let me stay. I even pulled the whole 'I enforce the law' speech as well, and I even said that I was his girlfriend, then –"

"You two are dating?" Rebekah cut in. "Why didn't you tell me? Why hasn't anyone told me?"

"No one knows because we aren't… maybe… I don't know, but it hasn't even been clarified between Klaus and I."

"Still!" Rebekah cut her off again, then a look of realisation took over her face before she pointed a finger at her. "Wait a second… did you two sleep together?"

Caroline threw her head back and groaned. "Why does everyone keep asking that?"

"Oh, come on. You can tell me. Besides, he kept talking about you on Christmas, and he was late to our family lunch, and I heard about the whole thing that happened at the work function the night before." She said and the grin on her face grew even bigger. "You totally slept with Nik. It makes so much sense. And he's always in such a good mood lately and even Katherine told me that ever since work went back after Christmas, you've been overly cheerful."

Caroline looked around the room for an escape before sighing. "Fine, alright. You got me. I slept with your brother. Happy?"

"Definitely. I just got my daily dose of gossip."

"You can't tell anyone, Rebekah. Please. We were just going to keep it between us." Caroline said desperately. She wouldn't hear the end of it from Katherine if she found out, and she already knew that Rebekah wasn't going to stop hassling her about it now.

"Why not? Why don't you two just start the whole boyfriend/girlfriend thing already?"

Caroline frowned. "I think that's what tonight was for." She said quietly.

Rebekah raised a brow. "What? You two were planning on screwing again or something?"

"What? No!" Caroline said defensively. "He was going to take me out for dinner. We were going to go on a date."

"And then you were going to go back to his place and screw." Rebekah added. Caroline rolled her eyes and looked over at the door.

"Look, we can talk later. I've seriously got to go home and get ready for work. You don't need to wait out here either. Just go in there and say that Lieutenant Forbes said you have permission to go in. They know who I am, I'm sure they'll let his sister in ten minutes early."

Rebekah beamed and threw her arms around her. "Thank you, Caroline!" she said before taking off down to the ward.

* * *

Caroline rushed home from the hospital and quickly got ready before heading down to the department. She walked through the foyer only to stop and have her attention taken by a girl sitting behind the front desk where Elena used to be positioned for her office work. The girl had brown hair that was styled in waves. Her eyes were a chocolate brown and her skin was of an olive tone.

"You must be the new secretary… Hayley." Caroline said as she got close enough to read her name tag. Caroline leaned across the front desk with her hand extended, a welcoming smile on her face. "I'm Lieutenant Forbes, but you can call me Caroline."

Hayley took Caroline's hand and shook it briefly. "Nice to meet you, Caroline. I know that Tyler said that you were beautiful, but I didn't think you'd be this pretty."

Caroline frowned at the comment. She knew it was a compliment, but the fact that Tyler had that said made her feel guilty. After a moment, she forced her frown into a genuine smile.

"Thank you. You're seriously pretty, too. I wish I had a tan like you. I'm so pale." Caroline said with a laugh.

"It suits you, though." Hayley said and gestured down the hall, realising that she should get back to work. "Tyler and Jeremy are already down the hall in two separate interrogation rooms each with Damon and Enzo. Jeremy and Damon are in room 3.2, and Tyler and Enzo are in room 3.3."

Caroline smiled and nodded. "Thanks for that. We can have a chat later." She received a smile back from Hayley before heading down the hall towards room 3.2. Once she opened the door to the room, her eyes fell on Damon Salvatore who was eyeing her with a smirk on his face. Caroline kept a straight face as she felt his insanely blue eyes follow her as she walked over to the corner of the room and leaned against the wall with her arms folded over her chest.

"Hey there, Blondie." Damon sneered.

Caroline turned her focus towards Jeremy, ignoring Damon completely as if he wasn't there. "Has he spilled anything yet?"

"No. He's just been talking a lot of shit that I don't particularly care about."

"Let's face it, Barbie, I'm not going to spill my deepest, darkest secrets to this chipmunk." Damon said with a hand-cuffed gesture to Jeremy.

Caroline made a show of putting her hand on the handle of her gun and glared at Damon. "Let's face it, Damon, you have no choice." She replied.

"Oh please. Even I know that there are certain restrictions against you officers using abuse to get answers out of criminals like me."

Caroline narrowed her eyes at Damon and he smirked when her expression showed that he was right.

"You look like you would like to say a few things to me, Blondie." He said with a smirk.

"I can't because calling you Satan would be an insult to Satan himself." She dead panned. "I have a lot of reasons to dislike you. I have a lot of reasons to want you dead. And I sure as Hell have plenty of reasons to kill you myself." She stepped closer to the table and pressed her palms down on the surface, leaning across the table towards him with a cruel look in her eyes. "You have been selling illicit drugs and unauthorised weaponry, have been involved in murders, broken into family homes, broke into _my_ house, tried to kill me, _and_ you shot my boy– one of my sergeants." She said, quickly correcting herself.

"You mean your boyfriend." Damon corrected her.

Caroline grabbed the front of his shirt and pushed him back into his chair angrily, pulling her gun out and pressing it to his chest right over his heart. "Don't back-chat an officer, especially a lieutenant, you egotistical, selfish, cocky son of a bitch!"

"Whoa, Care, stop it!" Jeremy put a hand around her arm but she shrugged it off.

"Don't Jeremy." Caroline snapped at him until he backed off. "He needs to learn a lesson about respect."

"And you need to learn a lesson about control, Blondie."

She pressed her gun harder into his chest. "I'd shut up if I were you." She hissed venomously.

"Care, seriously. Just leave him with me and I'll handle it. Go check how Tyler's going with interrogating Enzo."

Caroline glared at Damon, making sure to make him feel like her eyes were burning into him. She wanted him to feel uncomfortable, exposed, weak, but from the look on his face, he wasn't the least bit scared of her. Aggravated by this, she shoved him against the back of his chair as hard as she could and stormed out of the room, knowing that he was right about one thing: There were restrictions against her abusing him, no matter how much he deserved it.

She stormed into the next interrogation room where Hayley said Tyler and Enzo would be and walked straight up to Enzo and grabbed him by the front of his shirt. Tyler tried to separate the two of them but she shoved him away, her attention fully on Enzo whose face she was glaring at only centimetres away from her own.

"I'm not in the mood for games or beating around the bush, so let's make this quick. Are you working for anyone?"

"Well hello to you too, gorgeous."

"Answer the damn question!" She snapped.

"Now why would I answer your questions when you talk to me like that, love?"

She dropped him back in his chair and pushed him back against the back of it. No one, and she meant no one, called her '_love_' apart from Klaus. She wasn't in the mood to tolerate it. "Do _not_ call me 'love.'" She said calmly, but venomous enough to let Enzo know that she wouldn't tolerate it.

"Why not?" Enzo sneered, "I hear you have a thing for accents."

Not able to take it anymore, she narrowed her eyes and wrapped her hand around his throat, cutting off his airway.

"I asked you a question. Are you working for someone?"

Enzo held his breath, preserving what oxygen he already had, but it only made Caroline squeeze his throat harder.

"Are you working for someone?" She demanded harsher.

Enzo made a wheezing sound and choked out "No," before Caroline released his throat, giving him time to take another breath before cutting off his airway again.

"You better be telling the truth, because God forbid, if you're lying to me, then you're going to be a dead man."

"It's… the truth." He choked out, trying to suck in oxygen.

"Caroline!" Tyler said loud enough to get her attention. She looked over at Tyler, then released Enzo before walking over to Tyler. "Lock him up until the car gets down here to take the two of them to prison. We're done here."

Caroline walked out before Tyler could protest.

* * *

Caroline made her way to the ward Klaus was in at the hospital and knocked on the door of his assigned room before opening it and walking in. When she saw the bed was empty and made neatly, she immediately thought the worst.

"Klaus? Klaus?"

"Relax, love. I'm not dead."

She spun around to find him in the doorway and hit his undamaged arm. "You nearly gave me a heart attack. I thought you were dead."

"Then explain why I have a bag of clothes that Rebekah brought next to the bed and why the hospital staff wouldn't have called you or my family."

She pressed her lips into a thin line. "Fine. Alright. I wasn't thinking. Happy?"

"No." he dead panned. "Because it's not like you to not think logically. Something's bothering you. Spill."

What bothered her even more in that moment was that he could read her so easily. It wasn't something that people could work out straight away about her, but Klaus has been able to read her like an open book from the get-go.

"It's a bit of a long story." She muttered.

"Well then," he said and took a seat on the bed, leaning back and patting the spot next to him, "Take a seat and tell me, sweetheart. I've got all day."

She thought about it for a moment before she decided she needed to rant. She climbed onto the bed next to him and leaned her head against the bedhead and sighed. She felt somewhat like she was at a counselling session with a psychologist.

"Well I was having a good day and all – a little tired obviously from stressing about you being stupid enough to let yourself get shot –"

"It was never my intention to be a red target, love."

"I know. Anyway, I left the ward this morning and ran into your sister. She sort of worked it out that we slept together on Christmas Eve –"

"Wait," he cut her off again, "Rebekah knows?"

Caroline saw his expression waver, as if he was trying to determine whether that was either a minor problem or a serious issue. Caroline bit her lip.

"Let's just say that she put two and two together and worked it out."

He stayed quiet for a long moment before nodding. "Continue, love. As you were saying?"

Caroline knew she wouldn't have his full attention now after telling him that, but she continued anyway. "So I had to deal with that conversation with Rebekah, then I went to work – we have a really nice new secretary now named Hayley – and I went to go see how Jeremy's interrogation of Damon Salvatore was going, but he said some stuff to really piss me off, so I got my gun out and was ready to kill him but I knew I couldn't, so I left and went to see how Tyler was going with Enzo and it wasn't any better. He aggravated me as well and started going _'I hear you have a thing for accents'_ blah, blah, blah and all this crap just to drive me up the wall. So then I threatened him and left and now I'm here."

"He was right, you know? Enzo." Klaus said and Caroline shot him an aggressive look. "You do have a thing for accents."

A smirk appeared on his face and she rolled her eyes. "Well of course you would say that. You're British." She said and elbowed him in the side, which only gave him a reason to chuckle at her reaction.

"But in all seriousness, love, I wish I was there to witness this aggression you possess. It would have been quite a thing to watch."

"Let me guess, because you '_like a bit of aggression in a woman_?'" she mimicked him, remembering that was exactly what he had said to her in their first meeting the day after they'd met each other.

He smirked and Caroline could tell he was thinking about the same conversation as her. It wasn't a pleasant one at the time, but now it was almost funny. "Yes, but it's even better coming from you. I always knew you had that power within you, Caroline. It's one of the reasons I like you. You certainly rule the department like you're a queen. It's quite fitting for you, love. It suits you well."

"Well if I'm queen, what does that make you?"

He smirked. "Even you have called me the alpha male, sweetheart, and everyone at the department knows it. Even Alaric knows it. He just doesn't want to say it."

"Uh huh, sure." She said sarcastically with a nod.

He chuckled for a moment before going silent. "You should go home and rest, Caroline. You've had a long few days, and quite frankly, I don't want to be the reason you run yourself to exhaustion."

"Well technically we were supposed to go on a dinner date tonight, remember?" she pointed out and he frowned.

"Yes, and unfortunately I had the privilege of being shot."

She nodded. "Exactly, so I'm not going to go home and spend the night by myself while you're in hospital when we were supposed to be going out for dinner together. If we can't go anywhere, then I'm staying here." She said in a tone that meant she wasn't leaving no matter what he said.

The corners of his red lips lifted into a smile. "Sometimes I really like your stubbornness, love."

She felt a smile appear on her face. Not just one for the sake of it, but a real genuine smile, knowing that he appreciated parts of her that no one else thought was important. People usually saw her stubbornness as her acting like a child, but Klaus saw it as a sign of determination, a strong will to prove herself. That was one of the things she liked about him – that he was able to appreciate small things like that which no one else did.

"Good, because you're going to have to deal with it." She said as she leaned in to kiss him.

Klaus ignored the pain in his shoulder as they kissed, focussing on the softness of Caroline's pink lips, the taste of her mouth, the sweet berry scent of her perfume, and the feeling of her silky blonde curls between his fingers. She was the definition of perfection to him, even though she couldn't see it. He would make her see it someday, though. Maybe not today, but someday, she would see herself just like how he saw her.

"Okay, Niklaus Mika– Oh, sorry. I'm interrupting something."

They broke apart at the sound of Doctor Fell's voice and looked over at her as she stood their awkwardly. Caroline felt her cheeks go bright red. Klaus however, looked at Meredith with a smirk and put his good arm around Caroline's shoulders.

"Good evening, Meredith."

"Yes, well it's certainly a good evening for you, isn't it?" she said and looked over her papers on her clip board as Caroline's face turned even redder than she thought possible.

"I just came to let you know that you can leave tomorrow morning. These are your release forms. I'll need you to sign it and then I'll come by tomorrow morning to sign you out. I'll leave them here in the file holder at the foot of the bed." She said and did so before looking back at the two of them with an amused smile. "Don't have too much fun. This is a hospital after all." She said and left them alone once again.

"Well that wasn't awkward or embarrassing at all." Caroline said as Klaus put a finger under her chin and made her look at him.

"I wouldn't worry about it, love. Now, where were we?"

She smiled and pressed her lips to his once again and rested a hand on his cheek. She didn't care that their dinner date hadn't been able to happen. It wasn't the dinner that she was looking forward to. She just wanted to spend time with him as he did with her, and he was alive, and to Caroline, that's all that mattered.

* * *

**So what did you guys think? I know it ended on a bit of a sappy, fluffy note, but I couldn't help it haha. Let me know your thoughts in reviews, and don't forget to PM me if you are interested in making a cover picture for _Charge_ and the _Charge Sequel!_ (the sequel is yet to have a title! Haha).**

**Celeste xoxo**


	15. Battle Scars

**Hi everyone! Sorry for the wait, I've had so much work to do lately. This chapter is a little short, but it's important to their back stories. I hope you like it! Also, a lot of people seemed concerned after the last chapter about Hayley being introduced, so I'm going to tell you now that there is no need to worry! I don't like Hayley either and I hate the Klayley ship and I still cannot accept the fact of the Klayley baby, so don't worry! Haha. You just need to trust me on this one. Believe me, I've had this planned out for quite some time, so there will be a little surprise near the end of Charge. Also, I figured out how to make semi-decent edits so I finally made a proper story cover for Charge! Woo! **

**Anyhow, here is chapter 13: _Battle Scars_**

* * *

Caroline's alarm buzzed at eight o'clock the next morning and she rolled over closer to her side table to hit the snooze button. She stared at the clock sleepily and yawned, just needing a moment to wake up and let her eyes adjust to the light streaming through the gap of her curtains. Visiting hours started at nine o'clock at the hospital, so Caroline had an hour until she needed to be there to pick up Klaus and take him home.

She climbed out of bed and opened up her bedroom curtains, letting the sun pour in. Seeing as it was a nice day, she resorted to wearing a crème knee-length dress that was light enough for summer weather. She made her way to the bathroom and set her clothes down on the towel rack before turning on the shower and then stripping down to let the water heat up. The hot water calmed and relaxed Caroline and she closed her eyes as it heated up her body. She had been through a lot the past few months since she had returned to Mystic Falls. She had the Salvatore brothers break into her house and try to kill her, Klaus got shot, Elena – who Caroline thought was her friend – had helped the Salvatore's conspire against her, and she had to deal with hiding feelings that she didn't want to acknowledge along with her and Klaus' little Christmas Eve secret that Rebekah now knew.

Yeah. She'd had it pretty rough.

Caroline forced herself to step out of the warmth of the shower and dried herself off before putting her clothes on. She quickly styled her hair, did her makeup and brushed her teeth before grabbing her keys and purse and heading down to her car. Not having the time to make herself breakfast, she went through the McDonalds drive thru and got herself a bacon and egg muffin – not the healthiest option – to eat before making her way to the hospital.

* * *

Klaus packed whatever belongings he had with him that Rebekah had brought to the hospital and zipped up the bag. He picked up the clipboard from the end of the bed with his release forms on it and signed them lazily, just wanting to get out of there as soon as possible. He hated having to let people take care of him; he was perfectly capable of doing so himself. That, and it made him look and feel weak, which he hated even more. He hated having to stay in this damn ward and hated having the hospital staff fuss over him. He hated the food, too, and he hated the constant check-ups from all the nurses to see how his shoulder was going. Yes, he understood that it was their job and he had no issue with the staff, but he was perfectly capable of cleaning his own wounds and making his own food. The only thing that had made this weekend bearable was Caroline's company.

When Caroline walked through the door, all of the hatred he was feeling vanished and was replaced with a sense of joy that he only felt whenever she was around. He looked her up and down with a smirk on his face, looking at the crème summer dress she decided to wear. It was modest, but still showed enough cleavage for his liking.

"Hello love."

"Klaus." She replied with a nod before walking over to him and looked at the bag on the neatly made bed. "Have you packed everything?"

Straight to business as per usual. Some things about her never changed.

"Ready to go whenever you are, love."

Personally, Klaus would have preferred to drive himself home rather than have an escort, once again, going back to him wanting to be his own independent person, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to drive with an injury like his. It would be too painful and as much as he didn't want to admit it, he had to follow Doctor Fell's orders.

Bloody Hell, these women were domineering.

"Okay, great." She picked up the bag and heaved it over her shoulder. "Come on, let's get you signed out of here."

Klaus grabbed hold of her wrist and turned her towards him and took the bag off her. "I can carry my own things, Caroline. I'm not dying."

"But your arm –"

"Once again, I'm not dying. Besides, I've got two arms, remember?"

Caroline bit her lip as she watched him throw the duffle over his good shoulder before nodding. "Okay. Let's just find Meredith and get you out of here."

"No need," Meredith said as she walked into the room and pulled a pen out from behind her ear and held a hand out for Klaus to hand her the clipboard he was still holding. He gave them to her and she signed the release forms.

"Now remember what I told you. You need to take time off work and relax. Don't strain your shoulder or else you'll end up back in here and we don't want that, do we?"

Klaus shook his head. "Believe me, I don't want to come back. No offense."

Meredith smiled at the two of them. "Good, and if there is any trouble, please don't hesitate to contact me. I'm always happy to help."

"Thanks Meredith." Caroline said. "I'll make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

They exchanged goodbyes before Caroline took his hand and practically dragged him out of the hospital and to her car. Once at the car, she let go of his hand and opened the back door for him to put his bag into. He raised a brow at her behaviour as he tossed the bag into the back seat.

"What's gotten into you?"

She shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. "I just don't like hospitals all that much." She said and headed around the car to the driver's side. She got in the car and he followed suit, sitting in the passenger seat.

"And why is that, love?"

Caroline sighed dramatically as she put her seatbelt on and started up the car, ignoring his question, only giving Klaus reason to ask it again.

"Why don't you like hospitals?"

Klaus watched as she chewed her bottom lip, deciding whether or not to speak before turning to him.

"If you must know, I spent two solid weeks in hospital when I was seventeen because of a stupid car accident. It's not that exciting." She muttered and started up the car, driving out of the car park and onto the main road.

Klaus felt his face drop and frowned. Caroline? Sweet, gentle Caroline had been in a car accident and spent a solid two weeks in hospital when she was only seventeen? Klaus tried to imagine Caroline as a young, innocent girl in a situation as such, but couldn't bring himself to visualize it. He watched her carefully as she focussed on the road in front of her, but he could see from the look in her eyes that she was thinking about the accident. He could see the pain, and he found himself wishing that he could somehow take that pain away.

"I am sorry to hear that, Caroline." He said, his voice sincere.

Caroline took in a breath and sighed. "It's all right. It was years ago." She said and fell silent for a moment before speaking again. "What about you? Yesterday you told me you had been in hospital before. What happened with you?"

Klaus' expression hardened and he looked out his window. "It's not something I talk about." He said in a defiant tone.

"Oh, come on. I shared with you. Now you need to tell me."

Klaus pressed his lips into a thin line and looked out the window. He knew Caroline wouldn't give in until he told her something.

"Let's just say that I come from a very dysfunctional family and I made a choice that I've regretted every day since." He finished in a tone that said the discussion was closed, but Caroline kept persisting.

"How's your family dysfunctional? You all seem to get along to me."

"That's because you don't know my whole family and it's going to stay that way. Now that's enough, Caroline. I'm not saying anymore." He said darkly.

He kept looking out the side window, but he could hear Caroline take in a breath and sigh. She didn't say anything back to him. He was too pre-occupied thinking about Henrik and Mikael now to speak, and she was clearly stuck in her own little world probably trying to work out what had happened. They were both silent for the rest of the car ride.

* * *

Once they arrived back at his house, Klaus dumped the duffle that Rebekah had packed in the hallway and walked to the kitchen, Caroline following close behind him. Caroline set her bag down on the bench and walked over to him when she saw him head to the coffee machine.

"Seriously Klaus. Just go sit down. I can make it for you."

He shrugged her off. "I'm not a child, Caroline. I can take care of myself. Besides, it's not like I need to run a bloody marathon to make a damn coffee."

Caroline stepped back. "But Meredith said –"

"I don't give a damn what Meredith said." He cut her off and turned towards her. "You of all people should know that by now, love."

He watched as Caroline's jaw went slack and she folded her arms over her chest. "What's got you in a foul mood? Don't take it out on me."

Klaus pressed his fingers to his temples. "Do you ever stop asking questions? I told you I'm fine."

"Well you're clearly not."

"I said I'm fine!" he shot back and hit his fist on the bench, only to groan in pain and swear from using his injured arm.

Caroline furrowed her brows. "And you said you were fine." She muttered and grabbed his good arm and dragged him into the lounge room, forcing him to sit down before pointing a finger at him. "Don't you dare even think about moving. You're in a shit because you don't like being told what to do and you don't like it when people want to know about you and your life." She said accusingly and he narrowed her eyes at her. She let her arm drop back to her side. "I know this has something to do with our conversation in the car."

He broke his gaze away from her and looked anywhere but at her.

"Like I said earlier, it's not something I talk about, Caroline."

"Because bottling it all up is going pretty well for you."

Klaus pinched the bridge of his nose as Caroline moved to sit down on the couch next to him. He could feel her eyes on him. He let out a resigned sigh. If he was ever going to confide in someone, it would be her. Not that he needed to. He could cope perfectly well by himself, but once again, it was something about Caroline that made him think otherwise.

"My father and I have had a toxic relationship since I was a boy, though toxic would be an understatement. I don't particularly want to go into details, but I'm sure you know what abuse is." He said darkly as a haunted expression washed over his features. "My father hated me. Still does, and my mother did nothing about it. Rebekah even tried to kill him once, but Elijah stopped her, or so he says."

Caroline's face contorted into a look of shock. "Why would your own father do that to you? That's horrible."

"Because he's not my real father." He said and looked at her before shrugging his shoulders. "My mother slept with another man, and I became his bastard son. It got to a point where I tried to run, so I took the car and drove off, then saw my youngest brother was in the backseat because he didn't want me to go which would have been funny if I concentrated on the road rather than lecturing him and didn't drive off the road and into a tree."

Klaus leaned forward in the chair and clasped his hands together, looking down. "In other words, I made it, he didn't, and it was my fault. And now you know why I don't like to talk about it."

Caroline looked down, her hair covering her face from view and twiddled her thumbs. "I'm sorry about Henrik." She said in a sincere voice. "But you shouldn't blame yourself. It wasn't your fault."

"But he died at the hands of me." Klaus protested then looked back to Caroline curiously. "How do you know his name? I never mentioned it."

Caroline looked at him before looking down guiltily. "I found a photo album in the library the day you found me in your studio."

Klaus furrowed his brows. "That's an invasion –"

"– of privacy. I know. I just found it and I was curious. I'm sorry."

"I knew I shouldn't have let Rebekah make those things." Klaus said with a shake of his head.

"I'm sure she had good intentions putting the albums together, Klaus. She's your sister."

Klaus studied Caroline for a brief moment, taking her all in from her golden hair and fair skin to her ocean blue eyes and the curves of her body before snapping out of his reverie.

"You and my sister have similar qualities, I've noticed over time. For starters you're both stubborn, organised and complete control freaks."

"Hey!" she said and hit his leg. She would usually have gone for his arm, but she couldn't this time because of his wounds. "I'm not that bad."

"Says the one who wouldn't be quiet until I listened to her and sat down. I still want to make myself a coffee."

She scoffed at his words. "Oh please. I'm just trying to help you and make sure you listen to Doctor Fell."

Klaus chuckled. "Like I said, stubbornness. You won't take no for an answer. It's one of the things I love about you, sweetheart." He said and a smirk played across his lips.

She rolled her eyes at him. "Oh really? No one loves my stubbornness."

"Someone does. I just said I do."

"And why is that?"

"Because I love you."

The words were out of his mouth before he could process them and he mentally slapped himself. He wasn't supposed to say that; it just came out without thinking. It was the first time he had said something without thinking about it first, and this must have been how Caroline felt most of the time when she spoke without thinking. He felt like he'd just ruined whatever chance he ever had with her now.

He forced himself to keep his gaze on her as he watched her expression waver. She looked shocked, but then her expression softened and turned more gentle, a small smile appearing on her face. She looked almost… embarrassed. Then she leaned towards him and pressed her lips softly to his for a brief moment before breaking away just enough to look at him. He reached up and brushed her cheek with his thumb, waiting for her to say something. He saw her cheeks go red as she gave him a nervous smile.

"I love you, too."

* * *

**They finally said the 'L' word! :) What did you think? I know it got all fluffy at the end, but I just can't help it sometimes. Let me know what you think in reviews! **

**Celeste xoxo**


	16. The New Girl in Town

**I'm back with another chapter! This one is also a little short, but I haven't had much time to write lately. I will let you know something before you read this chapter though, to just trust me with where this story is going. I'm introducing another character in this chapter (One that I personally seriously hate in the show, but this character is important to the plotline of this story, so just trust me on this one!). **

**Chapter 14: _The New Girl in Town_**

* * *

**~ Three months later ~**

Klaus arrived back at the department after a patrol shift on the streets of Mystic Falls. Apart from pulling over and fining a man for driving twenty kilometres over the speed limit, his shift had been uneventful. Of course, it was better for society and all of Mystic Falls if there was nothing to worry about, but it just made his shifts boring when there was nothing to settle.

He walked inside and gave a small wave of acknowledgement to Hayley who was sitting at the front desk who returned the greeting with a wave of her own.

"Boring shift?" she asked and he nodded.

"As per usual." He said and passed Hayley the leaflet that had the details of the man he caught speeding earlier. "Process this fine through the system, would you, love?"

Hayley nodded and took the leaflet from him. "I'll do that now."

Klaus gave her a half-hearted smile, said "thank you," and walked into the staffroom. He found Matt, Jeremy and Kol playing a game of poker and Caroline over at the coffee machine pouring milk into her mug. He smirked in her direction before turning his attention back to the guys playing cards.

"Did you honestly think you could start a game of poker without me?" he said, announcing his presence and they all turned to look at him. He saw Kol flip him the bird and returned it back to him before noticing Caroline shaking her head.

"Did you seriously think they cared?" Caroline said as she put the milk back in the fridge.

"I don't particularly care if they cared or not, love."

"Good," Kol interjected, "Because we clearly don't give a shit."

"Well start a new game. I'm joining you." Klaus said, not even bothering to ask.

"Hi to you, too. And I'm great, thanks for asking." Caroline cut in sarcastically with her hands on her hips. She had that sarcastic look on her face that she always wore in moments like this.

"Right. I apologise, sweetheart." He walked over to her and kissed her briefly, resting his hands on her waist. "Can you forgive me?" he said with a smirk once he broke his lips away from hers.

She chewed on her lip while she pretended to think. "I think I can let it slide, but just this once."

Klaus' smirk grew before he pressed his lips to Caroline's again. Her lips were soft and tasted of vanilla from the lip balm she always applied. The smell of her usual berry-scented perfume filed his nose along with the electric feeling of his hands on the curve of her waist. His senses were alive, completely absorbed by Caroline and Caroline alone, but that was gone all too soon when he heard the others calling out.

"Get a room, guys."

"Care, seriously?"

"Brother, stop chewing on your girlfriend's face and get your ass over here if you want to play this round."

Caroline broke away from him and he saw her blush, which only made him smirk. She put a hand on his chest and gently pushed him away and towards the table.

"He's all yours. My coffee's going cold."

"_Ooooh _the coffee gets priority over you, brother. That's got to burn." Kol chuckled.

Klaus took a seat next to Kol and grabbed his cards. "Let's just start the game already."

Caroline stood by and watched the game as she drank her coffee, Klaus stealing a glance at her every now and then. She was watching the game intently, looking back to him every time she felt his eyes on her. Klaus couldn't help the smug smile that appeared on his face. He had finally gotten the girl; the one that had been constantly rejecting him and denying any kind of feelings for him since the day they'd met. Now they had been dating for almost three months and he still couldn't believe his luck. Okay, he could believe it, but he just really loved his current reality. They had gone out on plenty of dates, purely because Caroline had insisted that they do so and because he couldn't deny her of what she wanted. Every time she expressed her love of something, he made sure she would get it, whether it was a piece of clothing or jewellery. He had even met her parents, which he considered probably the most nerve-wracking day of his life. Her mother Liz had made a solid point of her having been the sheriff of Mystic Falls going several years back. And then there was the sex. He couldn't formulate any words to describe it. She might been in charge of him at work, but in bed, the roles were reversed. However, lately Caroline had been challenging that concept, including Klaus, with her many – and sometimes successful – attempts to take charge in the bedroom. What could he say? She was just as dominating as him, but he already knew she was a control freak.

A clap broke Klaus out of his sexual memories of Caroline and he caught sight of Alaric and Lexi walking towards their table with a woman in tow behind them. Klaus raised a brow at the sight of her and Matt bet him to asking the question he was about to ask.

"What's going on Chief?"

"We've got a new recruit to the department. We decided we needed more sergeants, especially after your incident with Damon Salvatore." Alaric said and gestured to Klaus. Klaus scowled at the memory, and he could almost imagine the pain reappearing in his shoulder again. He rolled his shoulder at the thought of it.

The woman was tall with pale skin and she had large, round green eyes. She had thin lips and she stood with a sense of grace that you would see of someone who was royal or in a beauty pageant of a sort, as if she was fragile. What stood out the most was her long red hair.

Lexi gestured to the woman. "I want you all to make Genevieve feel welcome."

_Genevieve._ _Huh._ A classy name for a pompous looking woman.

"Genevieve will be working with the rest of you. So Genevieve, you'll be working under Lieutenant Caroline Forbes," Lexi gestured to Caroline who gave Genevieve a welcoming smile, "And you'll be part of her squad here with Kol and Klaus. You've already met Katherine…"

As Lexi droned on, Klaus saw Genevieve's gaze fall on him. She looked him up and down with a sultry expression and Klaus dared a glance in Caroline's direction. He noticed Caroline stiffen and tense her jaw, glaring at Genevieve with her arms folded over her chest. Klaus could tell that Caroline didn't particularly like Genevieve anymore.

Once Lexi finished, she clasped her hands together. "Great. Now that everyone knows everyone, that's that. I'll see you all around. And Caroline," Klaus saw Caroline snap to attention, "I'll organise a meeting for tomorrow morning to discuss and give you an update on everything."

Caroline nodded. "Okay, sounds great."

Lexi gave her the thumbs up before leaving the staffroom with Alaric in tow. Once they left, Genevieve made her way towards the boys and looked in Klaus' direction. _Oh boy. Here we go. Here come the raging female hormones…_

"So you're Klaus Mikaelson, right?" Genevieve said while she twirled her red hair around her finger.

"Yes, that would be me."

"I'm also a Mikaelson." Kol interjected, but Genevieve didn't pay any attention to him. She just kept smiling at Klaus.

"I'm guessing from your accent that you're not from around here?"

"Obviously not. I'm British." He said, trying to let the disinterest pass through in his voice.

"I'm British, too." Kol interrupted again. "I have an accent."

Klaus could hear Matt and Jeremy snort, holding back laughter at the three-way conversation.

Klaus looked at his brother then turned back to Genevieve who was about to speak, but was cut off by Caroline who moved to stand in between the two of them. She held out an outstretched hand.

"Hi Genevieve. It's great meeting you." Klaus could easily sense the sarcasm dripping from her words. "I'm your Lieutenant, Caroline. Klaus' _girlfriend_."

_Ah, there it is._ Klaus knew Caroline was a control freak, but he had never imagined her to have a possessive side. He was usually the one to be possessive of her.

Genevieve's expression faltered a little, but she plastered a sarcastic smile on her face. "Oh it's absolutely lovely to meet you, too. I look forward to working with you all."

Klaus turned his gaze back to the guys as the two women played friendly. They were all just as entranced by this exchange as he was. Kol, however, was still trying his luck.

"I look forward to working with you too, darling."

Genevieve gave him a disinterested look and turned back to Klaus. She was about to say something when Klaus held a hand up and stood up.

"I'm going to go find Elijah." He said and put a hand on Caroline's arm. "I'll come find you later, love."

Caroline grabbed hold of his hand to keep him from leaving and pulled him down for a kiss – the kind of passionate kiss that made people turn away embarrassed for watching in public. Yes, of course they kissed on a daily basis, but even Klaus knew that this kiss was more or less Caroline proving a point to Genevieve. Klaus broke the kiss after a while, knowing that if he didn't, Caroline wouldn't have let him go.

"I'll see you later, love." He said again and pressed a kiss to her forehead. He took in her smile before walking out, leaving Caroline to relish on having the upper hand compared to Genevieve.

Klaus headed down to Elijah's office even though there was nothing in particular he needed to talk to his brother about. In fact, just using it as a reason to escape the new redhead. Once he reached his brother's office, he didn't bother knocking and just walked in, only to find himself confronted with something he never thought would involve Elijah.

Elijah had Katherine pressed up against the wall and was kissing her.

"Well, well, well. Isn't this an interesting turn of events?" he said and they scrambled apart at the sound of his voice.

"Hello Katerina," Klaus said then turned to Elijah, "Well brother. I never thought I would ever end up walking into a scene as such."

"Niklaus, it is common courtesy to knock."

"And it's common courtesy to not push a woman up against the wall. But then again, I don't know much about common courtesy." He said with a smirk and Katherine looked at him revolted.

"Okay, I did not need that image of you and Caroline."

"Well now we're even, Katerina."

"Why are you here, Niklaus?" Elijah cut in and Klaus turned his gaze to his brother.

"Why I work here, Elijah." He said smugly.

"I'm talking about here in my office. Why are you here?"

Klaus stroked his chin. "Well I did come here with an intention to speak with you over a matter, but it's seems to have slipped my mind." He said with a grin.

Elijah pinched the bridge of his nose and gestured to the door. "Now is not the time. Leave, Niklaus."

"As you wish, brother. While you attend to this business," he said, gesturing to Katherine, "I have some business to attend to with my girlfriend as well."

Katherine gagged. "You know what? I think I'll just go. I'll see you later, Elijah." She gave the two men one last glance before heading out the door. Klaus turned back to Elijah and raised a brow.

"You can go after any woman you want, but you go after Katerina. May I ask why you made such a decision, brother?"

"Why did you choose Caroline?" Elijah countered.

"Why wouldn't I choose Caroline?"

"You've just answered your own question. Now leave." He said harshly and Klaus frowned. He took a step towards his brother and pointed accusingly at him.

"Don't say I didn't warn you, Elijah." He said darkly and left the office.

* * *

Caroline had retired to her office after her encounter with Genevieve. She sat at her desk swinging back and forth in her chair, too preoccupied thinking about the redhead who was trying to hit on her boyfriend to do any work. She started doodling on a piece of paper but then frustration took over and she scrawled harshly all over it, the pen ripping the paper. She tossed the pen back onto her desk half-heartedly and sat back in her chair, a scowl on her face as she looked at the torn paper.

There was a knock at her office door and she sighed. "Come in."

A moment later, Katherine stepped inside and shut the door carefully behind her. Katherine raised a brow at Caroline.

"You alright, Caroline?"

"I'm fine." She said quickly. "What's up?"

"You're clearly not fine." Katherine said and took a seat in the chair opposite Caroline, crossing one leg over the other and tapping her fingers on the arms of the chair. "Spill."

"I don't like Genevieve." She said bluntly. "I mean seriously, who does she think she is? She just waltzes in here like she thinks she's Ginger Spice."

"Or Posh Spice. Did you not see how she acts all prim and proper?"

Caroline snorted. "Believe me, I did. And I saw her flirting with Klaus, too."

Katherine raised a brow and leaned forward in her chair. "How did he react to that? He probably went along with it."

"If he did, he would be dead." Caroline dead panned. "No. He seemed disinterested, but I sure as Hell made sure I proved a point that he's my boyfriend and not someone for her to mess around with for her own pleasure. He's mine, not hers."

"Wow," Katherine said as she eyed Caroline, "You're just as possessive as Klaus."

"No I'm not."

Katherine chuckled. "Yes you are. You're a control freak, Caroline."

Caroline threw her hands up. "I'm sorry, okay? But he's my boyfriend. I don't want anyone else flirting with him. It just makes me feel insecure in my relationship."

"I don't think there's any need for you to feel insecure about your relationship, Caroline. Klaus is obsessed with you. We can all see it. Anyway, speaking of Klaus," this earned a questioning look from Caroline, "He walked in on Elijah and I hooking up."

Caroline's jaw dropped. "What?!"

Katherine waved off her reaction. "We were in his office and Klaus just walked in on us. Whoops."

"What?!" Caroline repeated. "You hooked up with Elijah? Our Commissioner?"

Katherine rolled her eyes. "Klaus hooked up with you, our Lieutenant."

Caroline shook her head. "That doesn't matter. Elijah?! Seriously?"

"What? He's hot. I want a little Mikaelson action too, you know."

"How long has this been going on?" Caroline asked.

Katherine stroked her chin in thought. "About two months."

"Two months?!"

Katherine smirked. "Yes, two months. And there's no need to look so surprised."

"Um, yes there is. I'm still trying to process that."

"And I'm still trying to process how good Elijah is in bed."

Caroline put her hands over her ears. "I did not need to know that, Katherine."

"Oh come on," Katherine said and leaned forward in her chair with a smirk on her face, "But really, you should see what's under that suit he always wears. That man has a lot of secret talents, or maybe it's a Mikaelson thing."

Caroline scoffed, but Katherine did have a point. Maybe it was a Mikaelson thing. Caroline knew that she had never know so much passion could exist between two people until she and Klaus got together.

"Well I don't want to find out. Dating one Mikaelson is full on enough as it is, and I don't plan on leaving Klaus any time soon."

"Well then, someone is going to need to break it to Kol. Shatter his little hopes and dreams of having you all to himself."

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Katherine. He can have Genevieve. He was trying to impress her earlier, but he took no notice of him. She was too focussed on Klaus." She said with a scowl.

Katherine smirked. "I take it you're not going to let this thing Genevieve has for your boyfriend slide?"

Caroline shook her head. "No. I most certainly am not."

* * *

**What did you think? :) I know there will be mixed opinions on Genevieve making an appearance (I hate her guts! But she's important to the story!). Let me know what you think in reviews!**

**P.S. If you ever want to read any other Klaroline stories written by me while waiting for me to update this story, just go onto my profile and you will find a set of one-shots and short stories I have written :) **

**Ta ta for now!**

**Celeste xoxo**


	17. Case 24601

**Hi all! I'm back with another chapter! From looking at reviews and PM's that I've received (and also from a personal opinion) no one is too pleased that Genevieve has made her way into this story. Believe me, I hate Genevieve, but she's relevant to this story. If she wasn't, then I definitely wouldn't have written her into it AT ALL! I can't stand Genevieve. On another note *The Originals spoiler* YES! HAYLEY KILLED HER! FINALLY, SOMEONE FREAKING STABBED HER AND KILLED HER! BEST THING THAT'S EVER HAPPENED! HAHA! *cue victorious laughter* Now bring on the Klaroline please Julie Plec! Did anyone else cry throughout the entire finale like I did? I fell apart when Rebekah came back at the end!**

**Anyway, enough of my hysterical fangirling. Here is chapter 15: _Case 24601_**

* * *

Caroline's alarm buzzed at six-thirty a.m. and she buried her face further into Klaus' neck, Klaus having stayed the night. She groaned and pulled the quilt over her head to block out the sound, but Klaus shifted irritably at the buzzing of the alarm.

"Turn the bloody alarm off." He grumbled.

She just buried herself further under the covers. "It's on your side of the bed. You turn it off."

"You're the one who has the early shift, not me. You get up and turn it off." He protested and turned to lay on his stomach as a final way of saying he wasn't going to do it.

Caroline grumbled, not wanting to step out of the warmth of her bed, so she resorted to climbing over his back and reaching over to turn it off. He grunted when she accidently elbowed him in the back and lazily tried to shake her off unsuccessfully.

"Sorry," She said, "But this wouldn't have happened if you turned the alarm off yourself." She said and finally reached far enough to switch it off.

"You could have walked around the bed, love." He said irritably, his voice muffled by the pillow.

She pulled the covers back over herself to keep herself warm and curled up next to him, looking at him intently. She loved the way he looked in the mornings. His sandy blonde curls ruffled messily from the pillows, his upper body bare of clothing, the roughness of his stubble but the softness of his features and the smell of his aftershave that was left behind on her pillows and quilt. He didn't look like the dangerous, cocky cop that she had grown used to when he was asleep, but rather took on a look of innocence. She didn't know how that was possible, after all, he was Klaus Mikaelson, but she liked seeing that soft side of him every now and then.

"It's rude to stare, sweetheart." He said into his pillow, not having to look to know that Caroline was watching him.

She smiled and released a small giggle. "I'm just appreciating the view I've woken up to."

He propped himself up on his elbows so he could look at her, a sleepy smirk on his face. "We'll both have plenty to appreciate later, but right now, go get ready for work. Don't you start at eight?"

"Yeah, but it's only six-forty right now. I've got plenty of time."

Klaus shook his head. "Caroline, I know that you take at least an hour to get ready. So go now or else I will." He said and gently pushed her over to the edge of the bed. She groaned and threw the covers off.

"Fine. I'm getting ready." She grumbled and headed to the ensuite bathroom to shower, leaving Klaus grinning triumphantly as he tried to not laugh at the Disney-themed pyjamas she was wearing.

* * *

Alaric had been droning on for ages. Not that he was boring to listen to, because he wasn't. He was rather entertaining and engaging at that, but Caroline thought that she could have gone over everything within twenty minutes and it would have been more efficient to save time and kept them all focussed and on the ball. Caroline had started doodling on the corner of her paper, drawing swirls and love hearts along the margin. Caroline got to the point where she had started writing people's names in cursive, and was halfway through writing Klaus' when Elijah gently nudged her arm to bring her back to attention.

"Right, thanks for that, Ric." Lexi said once he finished up and passed a blue folder over to Caroline with a label that read: Case no.24601. "This is our most recent case which we will be handing over to your squad, Caroline."

Caroline chuckled at the label, not taking in the seriousness of it yet. "The case number is 24601. Like prisoner 24601 from _Les Misérables_. Isn't that ironic since we work in the defence force?"

The three of them chuckled at Caroline's observation for a second before getting straight back to business.

"Right, so this is one of the weirdest cases I've ever had to process in all of my career in the force. What we've got is a young girl whose throat has been cut and left at the scene. The weird part, however, is that we found her in the middle of a circle and surrounded by candles and herbs. It almost looks like some kind of ritual."

Caroline opened the folder and took out the photographs from the crime scene. There was a young girl dressed in white with her throat slit, and she was lying in the middle of a hand-drawn circle that had an abundance of swirling patterns both inside and outside of it drawn in black and white. Where the swirls and lines ended outside the circle, candles were placed. Caroline looked over the images curiously. She had never seen anything like this before, and it almost didn't seem human at all.

"What is all this? These patterns?"

"We have no idea. We have assumptions of course, and then we have some wild ideas." Lexi said and Elijah nodded.

"Yes, we came to the conclusion that we had to take every possibility into account," Elijah said, "Including the idea of a ritual."

Caroline looked at him curiously. "So like a sacrifice of some kind?" she asked and he nodded. "That's crazy."

"Indeed it is, but we must take everything into account. We got Detectives Donovan and Lockwood to do some further investigation into the matter and they haven't managed to find much as of yet. However, they will keep you posted, as will we."

"So you all believe it's something supernatural?" she said, still in shock from what she was hearing.

"Well of course we don't believe it," Alaric said, "But there are some really crazy people out there, Caroline. People crazy enough to believe it."

"So you think this is like some kind of voodoo, witchcraft, magic juju thing?"

Alaric nodded. "Yes, to clarify that again."

"Right, sorry. It's just hard to wrap my head around something so absurd."

"That's understandable. Now, I think we are done here." Alaric said and stood up from his chair. "Meeting closed."

Caroline grabbed her folders and stood up, having wanted to leave this meeting for quite some time after being in there for a solid two hours.

"I'll see you all later." She said to the three of them and walked out. She passed by her office to file the folders in the filing cabinet before heading down to the staff room to make herself a coffee. She said a quick hello to Hayley as she made her way to the staff room and stopped in the doorway to watch as she saw the two people in the staff room.

Klaus was trying to make himself a coffee, but Caroline's least favourite redhead was still as persistent of him as ever. Caroline could see the irritation starting to show on Klaus' face as he shrugged Genevieve's hand off his shoulder. His reaction to her made Caroline feel somewhat better about the situation, but seeing Genevieve's flirtatiousness and the desperation in her eyes made Caroline feel both insecure and angry at the same time.

"Seriously? You're seriously still trying to seduce him?" Caroline cut in and they both turned to her. Genevieve rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically, while Klaus picked up his coffee and looked between the two women. Genevieve folded hers arms over her chest and Caroline put her hands on her hips as they each narrowed their eyes at each other.

"It's none of your business what I do Caroline."

"Yes it is." Caroline replied. "For starters, you're flirting with a man who's in a relationship. Second, he is my boyfriend. And third, everything you do and say while at work is my business because I'm your lieutenant. You follow orders from me."

Genevieve scoffed and turned to Klaus. "You're seriously dating that? She's a power freak."

Power freak? _Power freak?!_

Caroline's anger was starting to flare. She could feel her blood boiling and her cheeks go red. Klaus could see she was about to blow and made his way to her and grabbed hold of her hand which she didn't realise until know that she had clenched into fists. He uncurled her fingers gently as he spoke to her. It was a surprising thing really – that someone like Klaus Mikaelson had a gentle side to him.

"I suggest you leave Genevieve, or you stop this nonsense. Either way, it's your choice. But I will not tolerate your behaviour, nor will I tolerate you upsetting Caroline." Klaus said and turned to Genevieve. His voice darkened and Caroline could sense a warning tone behind it. "I won't tolerate any of it."

To Caroline's surprise, Genevieve didn't look affected by any of it. In fact, she just looked bored.

"And here I was thinking you were actually fun. Well, there goes that. I'm going to go find Tyler." She said tediously and glared at Caroline before heading out the door.

* * *

"I can't stand her." Caroline said as they stepped through the front door of Klaus' house. "She makes my blood boil every time I see her or even hear her voice. Hell, I just need to hear her name and it makes me mad!"

"I wouldn't worry about it, love." Klaus reassured her. "She's not going to get anywhere with it. I can promise you that."

"I know, but she makes me doubt it, you know? She just has this ability to make me question things." Caroline sighed as she walked into the lounge room, Klaus close behind her and took a seat on the couch. Klaus sat down next to her and pulled her to him, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

"There's no need for you to feel that way, sweetheart."

She looked up at his deep blue eyes. "I know. I've just got paranoia." She said, then added, "I love you, Klaus."

He smiled and brushed a loose curl behind her ear. "I love you, sweetheart."

She smiled as he leaned in to press his lips to hers. Their lips moved together and Klaus could taste the vanilla flavour that he had come to recognise as Caroline's soft pink lips. Klaus held Caroline to him by her waist, while his other hand was combing his fingers through her glossy blonde curls. He felt Caroline's delicate hands link together around the back of his neck as her lips parted to allow him to deepen the kiss. Caroline laid back on the couch and pulled him down with her, releasing her hands from around his neck to run down his chest and find the hem of his shirt to pull it over his head. Once she had discarded of his shirt, he watched as she traced her delicate fingers lightly along the scars the bullet had left permanently on his shoulder.

"How much did it hurt?" she asked in a whisper, eventually shifting her eyes from the bullet scars to his eyes.

_It was unbearable, _he felt like saying_._ It had hurt so much that it had gotten to the point where he couldn't even feel the pain and his body had gone numb, but he wasn't going to tell her that.

"A little." He said, but the look on her face said she wasn't convinced by his lie. "It was almost four months ago, love. I don't see why it matters anymore."

She went to go protest but he cut her off by bringing his lips down to hers again, this time kissing her more passionately than before. He ran his hands along her sides, feeling the curve of her waist and she released a soft moan at his touch. He felt her shiver as his hands found their way under her shirt and she tangled her fingers in his hair, but then the doorbell rang.

She pulled back just enough to look at him and catch her breath. "Someone's at the door."

"Just ignore it, love. They'll go away eventually." He said and started trailing kisses down her neck, making her close her eyes and sigh. He felt her shiver every time his lips made contact with her skin, but the doorbell rang again, followed by several loud knocks and a female voice.

"Nik, open the bloody door!"

Klaus internally rolled his eyes and groaned. Rebekah.

"Rebekah's not going to just go away, Klaus." Caroline said, making him bring his attention back to her. "Just go let her in."

"Fine." He grumbled and got up to go answer the door. He pulled the door open and glared at his sister. "What is it, Rebekah? I'm busy."

"Hello to you too, Nik." Rebekah said sarcastically then furrowed her brows at his bare chest. "And by 'busy' I hope you don't mean that I've interrupted something that has to do with you screwing Caroline."

As if on cue, Caroline appeared around the corner in the hallway and gave a small wave to Rebekah. Klaus turned from Caroline and back to his sister.

"What do you think?" he dead panned.

This earned an eye roll from Caroline and a shake of her head.

"Did you forget that I told you last week that I was going to stop by this evening?"

"Well I obviously forgot, didn't I? Come by tomorrow. Now's not the time." He said and Caroline held the door open to keep him from shutting it on Rebekah.

"Just let her inside. It's not like we were doing anything important."

"I beg to differ, sweetheart."

Rebekah made a gagging noise before she stepped inside. "Not while I'm around, please. For the sake of your baby sister, please don't talk about your sex lives in front of me. Especially you, Nik."

Klaus smirked, seeing it as a way to get rid of his sister sooner. "Well there was this one time Caroline and I –"

"Stop, please. Just stop." Rebekah pleaded with her hands over her ears. Klaus chuckled and saw Caroline's face go bright red from embarrassment. He sighed, defeated by the two women, and shut the door behind them.

"Alright, fine. As you wish, Rebekah."

* * *

**Please review! I love hearing from you guys :)**

**Celeste xoxo**


	18. The Artist And His Muse

*****IMPORTANT NOTICE*****  
**I will be changing my pen name from _Celeste 0261_ to _Klaus' Vampire Barbie  
_(Because I just can't seem to stop changing my mind)**

**Hello all! I'm not going to do a summary of this chapter. I think I'll let you all read it and find out for yourselves! I will say however, that I absolutely loved writing this chapter. It has a lot of emotion in it (I was in a Nicholas Sparks mood) and there are some scenes that were really fun to write :) I shall keep you waiting no longer! **

**Chapter 16: _The Artist And His Muse_**

* * *

_Caroline stood in front of the coffee machine in the staffroom at the department. She placed her cup down and flicked the switch of the machine, the coffee starting to slowly pour from the machine and into her cup. The smell of the smooth caffeine filled her nose and she closed her eyes as she took a deep breath to take in the bitter scent that she loved. She waited until the froth reached the top of her cup before turning the machine off and putting half a teaspoon of sugar into her coffee. She picked up her cup and walked down the hall on the way to her office, loving how the heat from her hot drink warmed her cold hands from the frosty weather._

_As she made her way to her office, she heard a voice from down the hall. Curious, she followed the voice, and as she got closer, she noticed it was the sound of a soft airy laugh of a woman. Caroline found the door to the room that the laughter was coming from and stepped closer to listen in. As she focussed, she could hear a second voice. It was male, and she could easily distinguish the accent was foreign. The man's voice was husky and it sent a tremor of shivers down Caroline's spine as if his voice alone was running over her and hitting every nerve, pulse, muscle, every cell of her body._

_That's when reality struck her._

_Her eyes widened and her jaw fell agape. She swallowed to wet her dry throat before she rested her hand on the door handle. She thought about opening the door slowly, but if they heard her, they would stop before she saw what she suspected she might see. She debated not opening the door at all and walking away so she could pretend she never heard anything and like it had never happened. Instead, she swiftly turned the handle in a quick motion and threw the door wide open. _

_She felt like she had been hit across the face when she took in the scene in front of her; like someone had stabbed her in the heart; like tons and tons of bricks had just landed on her and crushed her to pieces. He separated himself from the red-haired woman and turned his fierce blue eyes in her direction. There was a glint in his eyes that Caroline couldn't put her finger on, too overwhelmed by her world coming crashing down in front of her. The red haired woman whose skin looked like porcelain looked between the two of them before her eyes settled on Caroline. Genevieve gave Caroline the smallest of smirks before she took Klaus' face in her hands and kissed him._

Caroline forced her eyes open and woke up with a start, just wanting to get herself out of the nightmare that her new colleague was determined to make Caroline's reality. She stared at the ceiling and sighed, glad that it was just a dream. She didn't know what she would do if it ever truly happened. She would probably act just like she had in her dream. Or maybe she would burst into tears? Maybe she might grab her gun and shoot Genevieve's brains out then Klaus'? She didn't know, and she sure didn't want to find out.

She tried to move to get out of bed, but she was stuck. She turned to look to the side and saw that Klaus had somehow managed to make his way onto her side of the bed and wrap an arm tightly around her torso. His face was hidden amongst Caroline's blonde curls and was pressed into her shoulder. She could feel his lips pressed against her bare skin and could feel his cool breath travel over her gently. She took comfort in the fact that he was holding her and still wanted to be close to her even in his sleep. It reminded her, like Klaus always did, that this was her reality and that the dreams she was having was nothing but a trick of her imagination.

She tried again to remove herself from his strong hold but failed to do so, so she resorted to just lying in the comfort of his arms while he slept. She looked him over intently, her eyes always going back to the bullet scars in his shoulder. By some miracle, Damon had managed to miss hitting the tattoo of flying birds that was along Klaus' shoulder. She lifted her hand to gently trace her fingertips along the edges of the feather, then the birds, finally landing on the bullet scars. Klaus had told her last night after Rebekah had left that he hated having the scars, thinking they made him look weak, but Caroline had protested.

"_If anything, I think it makes you look stronger. Not weak."_

"_I don't believe that, love."_

"_Well you should."_

"_And why is that?"_

"_Because you're still alive. You survived it. You survived something that could have killed you and you're still resilient. If anything, I think it makes you stronger than you were before."_

She felt him stir in his sleep and she lifted her hand to gently run her fingers through his hair. She loved the feeling of his soft curls between her fingers. She lowered her hand to his cheek and caressed it softly with her thumb when she saw his piercing blue eyes open.

"Good morning." She said with a sweet smile as he turned his head to kiss the palm of her hand.

"Morning love." His voice had that huskiness behind it that it always had when he woke up and whenever they were being intimate. It drove her body mad on so many levels. "What time is it?"

"I would tell you if I could see the clock but you've trapped me here."

"Don't act like you don't love it, sweetheart."

She rolled her eyes and he let her go, but not before he stole a kiss from her. When she broke her lips away from his, she could see it in his eyes that it was over all too soon for his liking. She gave him a teasing grin before climbing out of the bed, dodging his grip as he tried to catch her to keep her from leaving. She laughed and shook at finger disapprovingly at him.

"Nuh-uh. Breakfast has priority right now."

"You wound me, love."

"You'll get over it."

She headed down to the kitchen in her pyjama shorts and tank top and looked through the fridge, frowning when she saw that there was no bacon. She wrinkled her nose and decided to just go with scrambled eggs and toast. She got a bowl out and the rest of the ingredients she needed to make the eggs. As she was chopping the parsley, she heard him coming down the stairs.

"Do you want some scrambled eggs and toast?" she called out to him. "I might as well make extra while I'm at it if you want."

"Well since you're offering, sweetheart."

He walked into the kitchen already dressed for work and a smile played across his handsome face. He folded his arms and leaned forward against the bar stool at the island counter in the middle of the kitchen as he watched her.

"Well this is definitely something I could get used to every morning."

She chuckled at his remark as she put the parsley into the egg bowl and mixed it in with the milk, salt and pepper. "I just happen to be a very good cook." She said matter-of-factly. "Someone should wife me."

"Patience love. We've only been together for just over three months. Give it another year or two."

She paused to look up from the eggs to him for a moment and raised a brow in question. She found it hard to tell if he was joking or being serious. He practically just said that he was going to propose to her in a year or two. She felt her cheeks go red and her heart flutter at the idea of him going down on one knee and pulling out a ring to ask her for her hand in marriage, but she shoved the thought to the back of her mind a few seconds later. They were still in that honeymoon stage of their relationship, so he couldn't have been serious. _He's joking,_ she told herself. _Just messing around._

She snapped out of her reverie and pointed the whisk at him. "I want a big diamond. Not a miniscule rock."

He looked down and chuckled before looking back at her. "Noted, love. Only the best for you, Caroline. Fit for a Queen."

She raised a brow in question at him before she opened up the cupboard and took out a pan. "I'm a Queen now, am I?" she said teasingly and he nodded with a smirk on his face. "Then what does that make you?"

She put the pan on the stove top and turned the stove on. She let the pan heat up before pouring the eggs into it and felt Klaus' strong arms wrap around her waist. He rested his chin on her shoulder as he held her close to him, her body fitting perfectly against his.

"That makes me king." He murmured in her ear and she felt her breath hitch at the husky tone of his voice. She went to reply but was at a loss for words when she felt his lips on her neck. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back to allow him better access to the soft flesh of her neck as he trailed hot kisses down her throat, causing a soft moan to leave Caroline's lips. She felt his strong hands move down to her hips and squeeze them gently as he drew circles on her hips with his thumbs. She found it hard to form any kind of logical thought while her body was screaming out about how much she needed him, her mind clouded by the feeling of his lips on her neck, until she heard the sizzling sound of the eggs in the pan.

"It's going… to burn… The eggs are going to burn." She said and gently pulled herself out of his arms. "You have a habit of distracting me at the worst times possible."

He chuckled as she went straight back to tending to the food, scrambling up the eggs before placing them on two plates.

"Can you throw some bread into the toaster please? I'll get the cutlery."

Klaus took out the bread and put several slices in the toaster and turned to watch Caroline and her domestic behaviour with an amused smirk on his face as she moved around the kitchen. She grabbed the cutlery from the draw and set it down at the table, followed by napkins before she moved to the coffee machine. He looked her over appreciatively, his eyes taking in the curve of her waist that was emphasised perfectly by the pyjama tank top that hugged her body. Her shorts made her long legs seem like they could go on forever and it took everything in him to not rip off her clothes and take her right there and then on the counter top.

The toaster popped, making him snap out of his fantasy and he took the toast out and put it on the plates on the table. He took the butter out of the fridge and placed it on the table, Caroline setting down the coffees by the time the toast was done. They both sat down and started eating, Klaus buttering his toast while Caroline scooped up some scrambled eggs.

"I don't want to go to work today. I couldn't be stuffed."

Klaus looked at her in mock horror. "I'm sorry, but did Caroline Forbes just say that she couldn't be bothered going to work? What have you done with the old Caroline? I want my girlfriend back."

She laughed. "Be careful or else I'll throw scrambled eggs at you." She warned him and bit into her toast.

* * *

Caroline's meeting with her squad had run somewhat smoothly. She had managed to update her sergeants on the newest case concerning the most recent murder, telling them that so far their officials were convinced that – though it may not be true or real at all – the murder was some kind of supernatural ritual. Katherine had scoffed when Caroline mentioned it, and Kol being Kol managed to make some kind of sexual joke about the matter, all the while Caroline contained her want to gauge out Genevieve's eyes from her head to stop her from giving Klaus that flirtatious look she always had around him.

"She's a pain in the ass." Caroline said angrily, pacing back and forth in her office, Katherine taking the opportunity to sit in Caroline swivel chair. "Who the Hell does she think she is. She can't just waltz in here and flirt with a taken man!"

Katherine had become Caroline's closest friend at work, Katherine allowing her to rant when she needed and her blunt honesty kept her from going insane. Katherine, in turn, made Caroline her go-to woman when she wanted to go on about Elijah; the two women then going over their time with the two Mikaelson brothers.

"She just wants to whore it up. I'm sure of it. She's desperate. You can see it in her eyes." Katherine claimed with a matter of fact tone to her voice. "I know a thing or two about slutting it up – I practically created the term – and she is the definition of a desperato."

"Well she needs to go find someone else to fuck. Not my boyfriend."

"Speaking of that fun activity," Katherine started and twirled a lock of her chestnut hair around her finger, "I swear Elijah is going to kill me one of these days… Or nights, I should say."

Caroline shook her head. "I still can't believe you two are still sleeping together."

"Yep, and holy fuck, Caroline. The things Elijah can do with that mouth of his."

"It must be a Mikaelson thing." Caroline noted and Katherine jumped up from her chair and pointed a finger at Caroline.

"Ha! I knew you two had slept together by now! How long ago was it?"

Caroline rolled her eyes. "It's none of your business. Besides, we're dating. It was bound to happen sooner or later."

"Don't lie to me, Caroline. If you two screwed before you guys started dating and you're lying to me about it, I'm going to be pissed as fuck."

Caroline took in the look Katherine was giving her and released a resigned sigh. "We slept together on Christmas Eve last year." She confessed, and by the sound of Katherine's delighted laughter, she knew that she would want details, so she kept going. "We left about 5 minutes after you left the work function and we went back to his place to have a few drinks. We didn't exactly get past our first glass because we starting making out. Next thing we knew, we were on the kitchen counter and glasses were being smashed, so we moved to his room and had sex. I swear to God I only got about two hours sleep that night."

By the end of her story, Caroline was grinning from ear to ear at the memory and Katherine had the same look on her face.

"Well? Is he as good as he looks?" she pressed on.

"Katherine, he's a fucking sex god. I've been having the best sex of my life ever since Klaus and I started dating."

"Okay, it's _definitely_ a Mikaelson thing."

"Or it's a British thing." Caroline offered.

"Or it could be both. Double whammy."

Caroline laughed and looked through her papers, taking out several from a file that she had to photocopy. "I need to go photocopy these. I'll be back."

Caroline headed out of her office, leaving Katherine in there waiting for her, and made her way down to Hayley at the front desk. Hayley looked up from her computer in acknowledgement of Caroline and Caroline passed her the papers. "Could you make a copy of these for me please, Hayley?"

"Yeah sure." Hayley nodded and took the papers from Caroline. She headed through a door to the photocopy room and Caroline waited out the front for her. As she waited, she saw Genevieve step out of the staffroom and their eyes locked. Caroline felt her blood boil, and without thinking, she stormed up to Genevieve and pinned her against the wall by her throat, clasping a hand over her mouth so she couldn't call out to attract attention.

"Listen here, Ginger Spice. I don't know why you're so fixated on separating Klaus and I, but it's going to stop today. I don't care who you are or how long you have been in the defence force, but there is one thing I can guarantee you: I will make your life absolute Hell if you even think about laying a fucking finger on Klaus. I will be your worst nightmare. Do you understand?"

Genevieve didn't say anything. Instead, her green eyes glared back at Caroline who just tightened her grip around Genevieve's throat. Caroline heard the woman wince at the pressure on her throat, but she didn't back down, not even when she saw the understanding that finally showed through Genevieve's eyes – an understanding that showed Caroline that her message had sinked in. Caroline's moment of victory was shot down when Hayley stepped through the door.

"Okay, I've pho– Whoa, what's going on here?"

Caroline looked at Hayley and released Genevieve. She took her papers from Hayley, muttered a "thank you" and glared at Genevieve one last time before taking off down the hall back to her office.

* * *

As soon as Caroline got home that evening, the first thing she did was jump in the shower. She was still feeling victorious from her moment with Genevieve today, but she still felt a hint of anger at the redhead. The cool water of the shower calmed and relaxed her, letting herself breathe in the berry scent of her body wash. Once she felt refreshed, she stepped out of the shower and dried herself off. From the bathroom, she could hear her phone signal a message. She wrapped the towel around herself and walked to the dresser in her room to check who it was. She had two messages. She opened the first and saw it was from Rebekah.

_Sorry again about the cock-block last night, but Nik seriously needs to learn to be more organised. Love ya, darling ex oh ex oh – R_

Caroline rolled her eyes and laughed at the message before checking the next one. She smiled when she saw the second one was from Klaus.

_Are you doing anything right now, sweetheart? – K_

She sent a quick message back.

_No. I was just going to watch last night's episode of America's Next Top Model. Why? – C_

Not even a minute later, he replied.

_Come by my house in 20 minutes. We need to talk. – K_

Caroline stared at the message. _We need to talk? Nothing good ever comes after the phrase 'we need to talk!' What does he want to talk about?_ Caroline had a nagging feeling this was about Genevieve, and she was ready to flip a table the second that thought occurred to her. She didn't bother sending a message back, instead quickly changing into a white thigh-length dress that flowed over her body and headed out the front door, straight to his house.

Fifteen minutes later – because she always liked to be early – she was ringing his doorbell. She didn't know what she had done for him to send a message like that. What did he want to talk about? She had no clue, but she could feel her breath hitching at the thought of the different possibilities. Was he going to break up with her? But only this morning they were joking about him proposing and her being a housewife. Maybe those jokes were too soon and she had scared him off? Was she too controlling? He always did say she was a control freak, but everyone said that about her. But was she even more controlling now? _Oh my God, maybe I'm too possessive! God damn it, I shouldn't have threatened Genevieve! Actually, no. Genevieve deserved what she got_.

The door opened and she had to keep herself from hyperventilating when she saw him, the sight of him only making the thoughts running through her head make her panic more. He was wearing dark jeans and a grey Henley, the necklaces around his neck hung outside of his shirt over his chest. She wanted to reach out and twirl the necklaces around her fingers, but she resisted the temptation. His hands showed signs of paint and charcoal on them. She swallowed to wet her dry throat.

"What did I do wrong?" she blurted out. So much for being a control freak. She couldn't even filter her own thoughts to her mouth without babbling random crap. "You wanted to talk?"

His features contorted in confusion at her words. "You've done nothing wrong, love. I just wanted to speak with you briefly."

"About what? Am I too controlling?" she rambled. There was no going back now. There was no point once she started. "Or am I too possessive? I can stop with being possessive. Well, I can try anyway, but Genevieve deserved what she got today. Are you breaking up with me? Why? What did I do? Oh my God, it's because I can't keep my mouth shut, isn't it? Because I ramble? I'll stop. I can try to, but I can't help it. I just get really –"

"Caroline, I'm not breaking up with you." He gripped her arms gently to calm her and he searched her eyes for an answer. "Where did you get that crazy idea, love? I simply wished to speak with you."

Her shoulders dropped as she relaxed, letting out a deep sigh. "Oh God. Well it didn't sound like good news from that text you sent me. You shouldn't have scared me like that." She muttered as he pulled her inside the house. "What is it you wanted to talk about then?"

"Well, it was more or less a statement I wished to inform you of." He said simply and pushed a loose blonde curl behind her ear delicately. His fingers brushed over her cheek lightly as he did so and it reminded Caroline how she thrived off of those touches.

"I would like to paint my muse." He rested his hand on her cheek and she couldn't help but lean into it. "If I have your consent, love."

She felt her cheeks go red and she was sure he could feel the warmth of the blood in her cheeks. She smiled sweetly, a mixture of relief that it wasn't something as drastic as she had imagined, and flattery, feeling overjoyed by the fact that she was his muse for his art.

"It's kind of hard to say no to you."

He gave her a genuine smile and took her hand in his and led her upstairs to his studio – the one place Caroline had remembered was off limits for absolutely everyone apart from himself. The fact that he was willingly letting her go in there without her even having to ask or even bring it up made her feel stupid for even thinking those idiotic thoughts at his front door. As soon as she stepped inside his studio, her senses were on fire. The smell of fresh paint filled her nose. There was colour bursting out at her from every angle of the room, the beautiful paintings and sketches covering the walls everywhere she looked. As she took it all in, she noticed the new editions to the art hanging from the wall and laid out over the tables were sketches and paintings of her, looking more beautiful than she ever thought she could. Is that truly how he saw her in his eyes? Did she really glow with such light like that in reality? Were her eyes really that bright and full of life? And did her blonde hair truly shine like they did in these paintings? She struggled for a moment to find the right word to describe what she felt when she saw his paintings of her, but finally settled on one. Love. It was love. She knew that she loved him and she knew that he loved her too, but the truth of it finally hit her in that moment, and she realised that she was dealing with something real and delicate, and she loved it.

He led her over to a love seat and instructed her to lie down before he took a step back to look over her, stroking his chin in thought. She smiled, seeing the artist within him emerge. She hadn't seen him paint before, let alone been the person he was painting. The concentration on his face showed Caroline how passionate he truly was about his art, and it warmed her heart to know that he had a soft spot for something so simple yet beautiful as art.

"Love, could you lie on your side facing my direction and slightly bring your knees in closer to yourself, and rest a hand on your neck." he asked and she followed his instructions. He assessed her carefully for a moment, taking in every angle and curve of her body. She watched as he looked her over before he approached her and reached out to release her hair from its hair tie, letting it flow over her shoulders like her white dress flowed over her body. He took a step back and looked at her appreciatively.

"You look perfect, Caroline, as per usual."

She smiled at his compliment and tried to stay still so she wouldn't mess up his set up. She watched as he dipped his paintbrush into the paint on the palette and start his painting of her. He didn't look like a cop anymore. He didn't look like a cocky guy who played poker with his mates and chased after women. He looked like an artist with a real passion.

* * *

After several hours of patience and Caroline being completely awestruck, Klaus had finished his masterpiece. Caroline stood up from the love seat and walked over to where he stood assessing his work on the easel, and Caroline was lost for words at the artwork he had produced. The word perfection couldn't even describe the beauty of the piece, leaving her speechless.

"It's beautiful." She said, though she felt her words still didn't describe the perfection she was witnessing. She saw Klaus smile, pleased with her compliment on the artwork he had produced.

"That's because you're the focus of it, love. You inspired it." He turned to face her. "Your strength, your beauty, your light."

Caroline responded in the only way she could think of. She reached up to cup his face in her hands and kissed him, brushing her lips lightly on his. He placed his hands on her hips and pulled her against the hard planes of his body. She moved back, pulling him along with her over to the love seat and broke her lips away from his temporarily to remove his shirt, Klaus pulling her dress over her head after she had removed the offending clothing. Her eyes fell back on the scars that decorated his shoulder and she let her fingers brush over them lightly. He lifted a hand and brushed his thumb gently over the faint scar on her forehead from when she had fought with the Salvatore's. She had forgotten it was there until his gentle touch reminded her of its existence. She lifted her eyes from his chest and to his piercing blue eyes, seeing the depths of emotion in them. She didn't need to hear him say anything to know what he was thinking. She could see the passion and love in his eyes that she too was feeling. She reached up to press her lips to his again while she took her time unbuckling his belt and unbuttoning his jeans. Klaus laid her down on the love seat and removed his jeans before climbing on top of her and looking at her as if he was trying to memorize every angle and curve of her luscious body. She lay there completely entranced by him, and for the first time in her life, she wanted someone else to take control. She wanted to give in to him.

He searched her eyes silently for a long moment, making him unable to say much other than her name.

"Caroline…"

"Make love to me, Niklaus." She whispered, and that was all he needed to send her into a world of bliss and euphoria that she simply knew as loving Klaus.

* * *

**What did you all think? It got a little fluffy at the end, but I was in a serious Nicholas Sparks mood and it was inevitable. Please review! I love hearing from you guys and it motivates me to update faster!**

**Celeste xoxo **


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